Plan your café
Leased area, service style and counter length.
Counters, queues and covers planned as one sequence
How this calculator works
- Kitchen area = total × kitchen share, covering prep, cooking, the dish wash and the cold room.
- Back of house = total × BOH share, covering dry store, staff change and customer toilets.
- Front of house = total − kitchen − BOH.
- Counter zone = counter length × 7 ft. That depth is roughly 3 ft of customer side, 1 ft of counter and 3 ft of barista working space.
- Seating area = front of house − counter zone − retail.
- Covers = floor(seating area ÷ per-cover allowance), then split 45% two-tops, 30% four-tops, 15% communal and the remainder as counter seats.
| Element | Allowance | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Counter service cover | 14 sq ft | Smaller tables, faster turnover, customers carry their own |
| Hybrid cover | 15 sq ft | Order at counter, food brought to table |
| Table service cover | 16 sq ft | Service aisles and a larger table footprint |
| Counter zone | 7 ft deep | 3 ft queue, 1 ft counter, 3 ft barista side |
| Kitchen, beverages only | 22% | Espresso, grinder, pastry warmer, small prep |
| Kitchen, light all-day | 28% | Panini, salads, one induction range, dish wash |
| Kitchen, full | 34% | Hot line, extraction, cold room |
| Turns per day | 3.0 – 4.5 | Counter service turns fastest |
Worked example — a 1,200 sq ft unit
| Step | Arithmetic | Result |
|---|---|---|
| Total area | as leased | 1,200 sq ft |
| Kitchen at 28% | 1,200 × 0.28 | 336 sq ft |
| Back of house at 10% | 1,200 × 0.10 | 120 sq ft |
| Front of house | 1,200 − 456 | 744 sq ft |
| Counter zone | 12 ft × 7 ft | 84 sq ft |
| Seating area | 744 − 84 | 660 sq ft |
| Covers | floor(660 ÷ 14) | 47 covers |
| Mix | 45 / 30 / 15 / remainder | 10 two-tops, 3 four-tops, 0 communal, 15 counter seats |
| Daily capacity | 47 × 4.5 | ≈ 212 covers |
The three decisions that make a café work
The first is the queue. A counter café lives or dies on whether five people can wait without standing in the seating area or blocking the door. Seven feet of depth across the counter length is the minimum, and the queue should run along the counter rather than perpendicular to the entrance. In a narrow Mumbai high-street unit that usually means putting the counter down the long side, not across the back.
The second is power. An espresso machine is 3 to 5 kW on its own, a grinder half a kilowatt, a fridge, a pastry warmer and a dishwasher another two or three between them. That is a 15 to 20 kW sanctioned load for a small café, and in an older building it is frequently the constraint nobody checks until the machine arrives. Confirm the available load and the incoming cable size before signing a lease, not after.
The third is the seat mix, and it is the one most often got wrong. Most café parties are one or two people, and many of them stay two hours with a laptop. A room of four-tops looks busy on a plan and runs at 40% seat occupancy in practice. Two-tops that can be pushed together, one communal table for laptop customers, and a window counter for solo visitors is the combination that keeps seat occupancy high without making anyone feel squeezed.
Every constant on this page comes from Greenbox site records — measured drawings, signed BOQs and completion certificates from projects delivered between 2023 and 2026 — rounded to the figures an estimator would actually write down. We publish them so the arithmetic can be audited rather than trusted. Treat the output as a planning figure: accurate enough to brief a landlord, a bank or a family, and not accurate enough to sign a contract against.
What this tool does not cover
- Kitchen equipment, extraction and the exhaust route, which in a high-street unit is often the binding constraint on where the kitchen can go.
- Licensing — food licence, shops and establishments registration, and any excise licence.
- Statutory occupancy and fire exit capacity, which can cap covers below the area calculation.
- Outdoor seating, which in Mumbai is seasonal and usually needs separate permission.
- Fit-out cost, which for a café runs well above a plain office rate because of the kitchen and the counter joinery.
- For a full restaurant rather than a café, use the restaurant seating capacity calculator.
Hospitality and commercial fit-outs delivered by Greenbox Design Studio.
Frequently asked questions
How many seats can I fit in a 1,200 sq ft café?+
About 47 covers at counter service, once a 28% kitchen, 10% back of house and a 12 ft counter zone are taken out. Table service on the same unit gives around 41, because each cover needs 16 sq ft rather than 14.
How long should a café counter be?+
Twelve feet as a working minimum. That fits an espresso machine, a grinder, a till and a pastry display with room for a barista to move between them. Under twelve feet one of those ends up blocking another, and the queue backs into the seating.
How much of a café should be kitchen?+
Twenty-two per cent for a beverages-and-pastry operation, 28% for a light all-day menu and 34% where there is a full hot kitchen. It is the single biggest determinant of how many covers the unit can hold.
What is the right table mix for a café?+
Roughly 45% of covers on two-tops, 30% on four-tops, a communal table and a window counter for solo customers. Most café parties are one or two people, so a room of four-tops runs at low seat occupancy however full it looks.
What electrical load does a café need?+
Fifteen to twenty kilowatts for a small café — the espresso machine alone is 3 to 5 kW, plus grinder, fridges, pastry warmer and dishwasher. In an older Mumbai building the available sanctioned load is frequently the constraint, and it should be confirmed before the lease is signed.