Professional espresso machine for outdoor event - Page 2

#11: Post by **drgary** » May 21st, 2022, 9:30 pm

With a two-group lever you can keep shots coming. You'll probably turn many into milk drinks.

#12: Post by **PeetsFan** » May 22nd, 2022, 10:26 am

What resources will you have? Running water? Electricity?
What budget? Will you rent or purchase the equipment?

#13: Post by **Mike3dr** » May 22nd, 2022, 7:18 pm

I don't know if buying an expensive machine to fulfill your requirements will be a profitable experience for you. How many shots can you do in 2 hours and what can you charge to make it a worthwhile event for you? You are looking between $4-6 K to start up on the cheaper side, and those machines are heavy. Good luck with whatever you decide.

#14: Post by **drgary** » May 23rd, 2022, 11:20 am

I wonder if there is a way to rent a professional machine for this one event? A caterer could provide it to you.

#15: Post by **ira** » May 23rd, 2022, 12:37 pm

I never thought Burning Man was about making money, but maybe it's changed.

#16: Post by **homeburrero** » May 23rd, 2022, 1:20 pm

A-String wrote:- One group since only one person will run the machine and we understood we are not gaining any output improvement with a second group

Beware that many prosumer single group machines are not tuned to crank out consecutive shots without waiting for the group temperature to recover.
As others have said, two or more groups will allow a single barista to crank out shots much more quickly.

For fun, watch these YouTube videos of legendary baristas handling the rush on 4 group levers:
Rosario at Bar.De.Ga in Napoli
Dritan Alsala in Düsseldorf

#17: Post by **drgary** » May 23rd, 2022, 1:45 pm

+1

My suggestion of a two-group lever comes from visiting the Blue Bottle kiosk in the San Francisco Ferry Building years ago. They had a window with a Kees van der Westen three-group lever. A single barista usually had two groups running in sequence. He would prep and load a shot and start a pull, and while that was proceeding, he would prep, load and pull the next shot. Milk steaming happened in between. With the constant flow of customers and shot-pulling, I can't imagine the groups not being temperature-stable.