Choosing Beverage Equipment for Your Restaurant or Bar

By Brad LaBel, LaBel Foodservice Equipment & Design

About the author: Brad LaBel is a CIA-trained chef and commercial kitchen designer with 30+ years of experience. He founded LaBel Foodservice Equipment & Design, Inc. in 1998, based on Long Island, NY. LaBel has designed commercial bars since 2008. Brad serves clients nationwide through ChefVue™, a remote collaborative kitchen design service via Zoom that delivers construction-ready CAD. He is an active CIA consultant on teaching kitchen design and has been featured in Total Food Service and Foodservice Equipment & Supplies.

Beverage equipment is one of those categories that gets underspecified on commercial kitchen projects. The cooking line gets the attention. The refrigeration gets specified. The beverage program — coffee systems, beer dispensing, juice equipment, specialty drink stations — often gets purchased reactively rather than designed intentionally.

That sequence creates operational gaps. Here is how to approach beverage equipment selection correctly.

Start with the beverage program, not the equipment catalog

The same principle that governs kitchen equipment selection applies to beverage equipment: define the program first, then specify the equipment.

What beverages will you serve? At what volume during peak service? What skill level does each beverage require — fully automated, semi-automated, or entirely barista-driven? What is the physical position of the beverage station relative to the service flow?

Those answers determine the right equipment. A coffee program built on a fully automated espresso machine is operationally different from one built on a semi-automatic machine with trained baristas. A bar program with twelve draft beer lines has different dispensing system requirements than a program with three. Get the program defined before you evaluate equipment.

Coffee and espresso systems

Commercial coffee equipment ranges from fully automated bean-to-cup machines that produce consistent espresso with minimal operator skill, to high-end semi-automatic machines operated by trained baristas, to batch brew systems for high-volume drip coffee service.

The right choice depends on your service model, your volume, and your staff capability. A high-volume hotel lobby operation that needs to produce hundreds of drinks an hour with minimal supervision is a different specification than a 60-seat restaurant with a trained coffee bar team.

Utility connections for commercial espresso machines include water supply (filtered), drain, and electrical. These need to be planned in the layout before the bar or beverage station is built out — not after.

Draft beer dispensing systems

A commercial draft beer system is a multi-component installation: the keg storage (a walk-in beer box or a reach-in keg cooler), the draft lines running from keg storage to the tap point, the tap tower or through-counter faucets, and the glycol cooling system that maintains beer temperature throughout the line.

For systems with long line runs — from a basement beer room to a rooftop bar, for example — the glycol system design and the line insulation are engineering decisions, not purchasing decisions. Get them specified correctly before the bar is built.

We specify complete draft systems, not just faucets, on every bar design engagement. LaBel has been designing commercial bars since 2008.

Juice and fresh beverage equipment

Fresh juice programs — cold press, centrifugal, citrus — require equipment with the production capacity for the service volume, cleaning protocols that work within the service schedule, and storage for fresh produce. These programs are labor-intensive relative to their revenue contribution; the equipment has to reduce that labor cost wherever possible.

For beverage programs that include specialty drinks — fresh-squeezed citrus for cocktails, smoothies, specialty non-alcoholic drinks — the equipment selection and the station layout both need to support the production flow during peak service.

Ice systems

A commercial bar is one of the largest ice consumers in a restaurant. Every cocktail, every glass of water, every iced beverage requires ice. The ice machine has to produce enough to get through peak service without running low.

Specify ice production capacity against the actual service demand — not a rule of thumb. Different beverage programs have different ice consumption rates. A cocktail-heavy bar consumes significantly more ice per cover than a beer-focused concept.

Position the ice machine where it can be accessed efficiently by the staff who use it most — typically directly at the bar position, not in the kitchen on the other side of the building.

Integration with the overall bar design

Beverage equipment does not stand alone. Every piece connects to a utility system (water supply, drain, electrical, refrigeration) and occupies a position in the bar or beverage station layout that affects how staff work and how guests experience the service.

At LaBel, beverage equipment specification is part of the bar design scope — not a separate purchase. The equipment, the utility connections, and the physical layout all come together in one design document.

For help with beverage equipment specification as part of a bar or restaurant design project, reach us at labelfoodservice.com or through ChefVue™ — our remote collaborative kitchen design service via Zoom, delivering construction-ready CAD nationwide — at chefvue.com.

Frequently Asked Questions

What commercial beverage equipment does every restaurant bar need?

The core categories are: a commercial ice machine (sized for your actual drink volume, positioned at the bar), a draft beer system if you pour draft (keg storage, glycol lines, tap towers — specified as a system, not just faucets), a commercial coffee and espresso system matched to your service model, and under-bar refrigeration for bottle storage and garnishes. Each of those has utility connections — water, drain, electrical — that need to be in the layout before the bar is built.

How do I know what size ice machine my bar needs?

Size it against your actual drink volume during peak service, not a rule of thumb. A cocktail-heavy bar consumes significantly more ice per cover than a beer-and-wine concept. Calculate your expected covers, drinks per cover, and ice per drink. Then add buffer for cooling, food use, and blended drinks if applicable. Most owners underspec ice and find out during the first busy weekend.

How does a glycol draft beer system work and when do I need one?

A glycol system circulates cooled glycol fluid through insulated lines from a refrigeration unit to the tap, maintaining beer temperature across the full length of the line. You need one when your tap is more than about 25 feet from the keg storage, or when the line runs through areas that are not refrigerated. For systems with long runs — from a basement to a rooftop bar, for example — glycol is required to pour properly. We specify glycol systems as part of every complete bar design engagement.

Should I hire a designer for my restaurant bar, or can I spec it myself?

For a simple beer-and-wine bar with a short list, a knowledgeable owner can spec the basics. For a full cocktail program with draft beer, a fresh juice operation, and a designed espresso station, you want a designer involved — not because the equipment is complicated to buy, but because how it all fits together in the layout determines whether the bar runs efficiently during service. Utility connections, under-bar storage, refrigeration positions, ice access — these are layout decisions, not equipment decisions. LaBel has been designing commercial bars since 2008.

Can LaBel help design a bar for a project outside of Long Island?

Yes. ChefVue™ — our remote collaborative kitchen design service via Zoom — delivers bar and kitchen designs, construction-ready CAD, and equipment specifications for projects nationwide. Contact us at chefvue.com.