Good espresso machine for small coffee cart? - Page 2

#11: Post by **Milligan** » October 11th, 2022, 7:28 pm

Randy is on-target with his questions. Something else is the workflow. One handling orders while the other prepares drinks? If so and depending on volume, you may need to consider a 2 group. A single group can only reasonably handle 30-40 or so shots per hour if you are lucky. To hit 50 or more you need a 2 group. This matters a lot when recommending because all home espresso machines will be 1 group. Note this is shots per hour, not drinks. Depending on dose and basket, you can get two drinks from a shot. As you can see, we need a few more details.

October 11th, 2022, 8:27 pm

maxvorobey wrote:I'm looking to open up a coffee cart with my wife, and we have purchased a decent grinder and are in the process of purchasing the cart. We are looking for a good espresso machine that will be able to keep up with 50-100 espressos per event (events like once a week) that we will be able to plumb in during events, and use at home other times.

Currently we like the r58 Cinquantotto as it has a decent size steam boiler, and seems to be a popular and well liked machine.

As far as more professional application the Ascaso baby t plus has been catching our eye as it seems to be more geared for that application, but it's kind of a hard sell considering it's worth almost $2500 more.

Anyone have experience with either machine in this kind of application?

I have a machine that fits your needs. It's the San Marco, all ready to go. It has a digital temperature display for cooling flushes and shot pulls. See link below.

[FS] Three Espresso Machines

#13: Post by **borisp** » October 13th, 2022, 12:12 pm

FWIW, I was just listening to some videos on the whole coffee cart thing, I heard someone mention a volumetric machine is advantageous when serving coffee that way you aren't concerned with stopping a shot at the right time and can do other things at that time.

#14: Post by **mrmoon** » November 2nd, 2022, 1:22 am

what about the decent XXL?

November 2nd, 2022, 9:30 am

It is pretty popular for low volume carts. Again, there is a physical limitation of a single group like I said above so one really has to know their volume before committing to a multi-thousand dollar commercial setup. The XXL was made specifically for more steam power for commercial uses. It is rather simple to program and run the same profile over and over as long as you have okay puck prep. IIRC, Decent has a page on their site about using their equipment in coffee carts.