equipping the kitchen

In order to calculate the cost of establishing a coffee house deli we begin by estimating the cost of a list of kitchen tools and supplies. We are talking here about my plan to be in the coffee house business within months, while also attending to all my other duties, which will be accomplished by hiring a chef. The chef need not be highly trained in cooking, but must be a responsible type and ambitious to learn interesting things and do fantastic work. The chef should also be empowered to hire an assistant, under our supervision.
The chef's first assignment will litterally be choosing a store location. Again, we, or I, supervise the whole process with great attention. Visiting and documenting many available storefront spaces will keep the chef quite busy for days or weeks.
Then the store opens for business. First, there may be a setup phase. The chef should think about the process of hiring an assistant, and advance that process measureably, during the store selection process. Some remodeling work may be required, before opening. Some electrical work may be required. Even more substantial work such as the instalation of a professional grade hood might be required. The instalation of a counter and refrigerated case may be required. The construction of substantial food storage accomodations is a requirement from the larger program "coffee house web." And free wi-fi is an absolute must - with excelent accessable power for patrons, too.
Innitially, and maybe permanently, we are not going to overdo it on tables. (We might expand seating to a second floor library area, in an informal way, and we can add seats in the main room if it's busy.) Now it will be time to open for business.
Part of my model is starting very simple. The menu can be coffee and, say, martzipan, something crazy like that. Our goal will be to sell a lot of coffee and martzipan. The coffee will be fair trade, ground by hand, by the chef, and made in china drip pots with unbleached filters, served in a cup with a saucer. The menu offers these options: sugar, one lump or two, cream, a little or a lot, and, of course, black. The coffee is not necessarily hot, and might even sometimes be cold ... it's just always beautifully served. You can also get an espresso - stovetop espresso. You can order martzipan coffee - it comes with a piece of martzipan - or martzipan espresso, or double or tripple martzipan coffee, which comes with two or three matzipans, and you can order chocolate or plain martzipan or both.
I should make it clear that I have a particular store front in mind, in describing these plans. I don't know what the existing layout is like in detail, but I know it's a storefront on the first floor and a beautiful condo on the second and third. It's in a fantastic urbanistic-experimental condo complex slightly on the edge of one of the most interesting and prosperous residential areas in the city (and, in a not un-real sense, at the very end of a vast city of neighborhoods called "the east valley," the end nearest the adjoining other great cities of Phoenix and Scottsdale).
I'm starting a software company, so there's a measure of logic in the idea of having a design office upstairs in the loft space. Those guys should work long hours, and they will help keep it a busy place.
I'm picturing the coffee house itself as a narrow shop with tables along one wall and the counter along the other. Behind the counter is an abundance of shelves, and drawers, a small stove, several toaster ovens, some counter space, and a three basin sink.

Now it's time to shop.
The chef is assigned shopping duties. The assignment: - I'll go radical, here - : take the bus to South Tempe, to ikea. This will be one of many trips, but start with this list: buy an ikea dolley, and (after your shopping), place in it (for carrying home), 1 pack bonus flatware, $4, 3 sets cups and saucers, 3 small plates, 1 cast iron skillet, 1 children's table setting pack and 1 children's cook set, single large all stainless sauce pan, wooden spoon and spatula set, 1 set dish towels, 1 set potholders, 1 stainless measuring cup, 2 pc small chafing dishes (china), 1 small pitcher (8"), one creamer,  pack of rye crisps and piece of cheese, box of cookies. Next go to Cost Plus World Market for - wooden spoons, if they're nice, 3 of tea spoon sized ones, 1 of larger ones, water glasses, 3, marked down napkins, cloth, one dozen, wooden cutting board, and kitchen knife and paring knife, measuring spoons - stainless only - and a small measuring cup, two small mixing bowls, or three, and tea bags, sugar cubes.

There are, of course, more such assignments to be recorded. How much of the kitchen equipment is represented? What, 1/100th? What kind of a shopping day has it been? Did we spend $100? Sure, that's fine. So, equipping the kitchen costs $10,000, not including fixtures (or, including them).

Next, stocking foods.