Scorecard · Austin, TX
Coffee shop with seating
36/100
How much does it cost to open a coffee shop in Austin? $145,000–$240,000 in Austin, TX, on the figures below.
- Profit
- C
- Austin shops average $4.75 a drink and 180–260 drinks a day. That is $27,000–$37,000 a month gross, against food cost near 22% and labour near 32%.
- Difficulty
- D
- Health permit, grease interceptor, ADA restroom and a Travis County food manager certificate. Build-out inspections in Austin routinely run 4–7 months.
- Capital
- E$145,000–$240,000
- Espresso machine and grinder $18,000–$32,000, hood and plumbing $40,000–$90,000, 12 months of $6,500 rent held back, plus a $19,500 deposit.
Break-even
- The number that has to be true
- 212 drinks a day at $4.75, six days a week
- Fixed costs a month
- $21,800
- The assumption
- A lease under $38 a square foot with the plumbing already in place.
Opening for less
All three together take $139,000 off: $240,000 becomes $101,000.
Take over a closed café with the hood and plumbing already installed
−$70,000
Costs you: You inherit their layout and their reputation on the street
Open as a 200 sq ft kiosk inside an existing building
−$55,000
Costs you: No seating, so the $6 pastry attach rate drops by about half
Buy the espresso machine and grinder refurbished with a service contract
−$14,000
Costs you: Two-year warranty instead of five, and no financing to spread
How you’d do it
What you need
- Austin Public Health food enterprise permit and a certified food manager on site
- A vented space or the budget to cut a hood through the roof
- $21,800 a month covered for six months before the first regular appears
- A roaster willing to sell wholesale at 40–60 lb a month
First 3 moves
- 1Walk five blocks of your target street at 8am and count how many people carry a cup already.
- 2Ask three landlords for the previous tenant's use and whether a grease interceptor exists.
- 3Price the same 500 sq ft as a kiosk and as a full build, and compare the two break-even counts.
The hardest part
Getting to 200 drinks a day in a city where three shops already sit within walking distance.
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