Grounds Up helps first-time owners turn the daydream into open doors. Learn the craft inside a real, working café, then let the team that's built fourteen of them design and build yours, on your budget.
It always starts the same way, with a daydream you keep coming back to.
It starts in a notebook
The morning light across the counter. The regulars who know your order. The smell of the first pour before the doors even open. You've pictured it a hundred times. What stops most people isn't the wanting. It's the hundred unknowns between the daydream and the doorway: the lease, the layout, the equipment, the build, the fear of one expensive wrong move.
Grounds Up exists to close that gap, from the first daydream to the first customer.
You learn behind the counter at Café Auburndale in Queens: real rushes, real regulars, real equipment. Nothing here is theoretical.
Between us we own two cafés and have built fourteen. You learn from the people who serve the coffee, and the ones who build the room it's served in.
Piece a café together vendor by vendor and the number balloons. We design and fabricate in-house, so we deliver the whole space for the budget you set.
We are a bonded contractor, and we are able to provide capital financing for prospective customers. The build and the funding can both come from one team.
We looked at how the rest of the industry is set up, from coffee consultancies and barista academies to commercial build-out contractors, to see where first-time owners fall through the cracks.
Imagine the space that's unmistakably yours.
A hands-on day inside a working café. Operations, equipment, layout, and the honest cost of all of it. No romance, no scare tactics.
We go deep on your concept, your market, and your budget, and tell you honestly whether the numbers work, before you spend a dollar.
Our in-house team draws your space, mapping flow, layout, and millwork, so you can sign a lease knowing exactly what fits and what it'll take.
We fabricate and build the whole room ourselves, on budget, and keep you beside us at every step of construction.
Counters in, machine on, opening-day playbook in hand. You unlock the door already knowing how every part of it runs.
We stay on call, sit down for a numbers check-in, and close out the punch list, all covered under the build contract.
Drawn in-house. Built in-house.
A contract usually ends when the counters go in. Ours doesn't. For six months after you open, we're still checking in.
Opening day
A direct line to the build team for anything that needs adjusting once real rushes hit the space.
One sit-down to look at real sales against the plan from your consultation, and adjust staffing or layout if the flow isn't working.
Any millwork or equipment issue that shows up under real daily use gets fixed, covered under the build contract, not billed as a callback.
The ranges below are typical for the tri-state market, not a quote. Your consultation confirms real numbers for your space and concept.
| Format | Typical footprint | Typical build-out cost | Common capital sources |
|---|---|---|---|
| Counter or takeaway-first | 400 to 600 sq ft | $60,000 to $140,000 | Owner equity, equipment financing, SBA microloan |
| Seated, brick-and-mortar café | 800 to 1,400 sq ft | $120,000 to $300,000 | Owner equity plus an SBA loan, private or family lending |
| Second location, proven concept | Varies | Build cost only, no workshop stage needed | Business line of credit, term loan |
A few of the cafés, bakeries, and restaurants our team has designed and built across New York and New Jersey.
Café Auburndale · Queens, NY
The workshop is the front door: low commitment, high signal. You'll leave knowing whether this is really for you, and exactly what your next step looks like.
Held in person at Café Auburndale, Queens. Outside the New York area? Ask about our remote program. We design your space and ship the millwork anywhere.
None at all. Grounds Up is built specifically for first-timers: people with the dream and the drive but no operational background. That's who the entire program is designed around.
Yes. The in-person workshop runs at Café Auburndale in Queens, but we also offer a remote program: we consult, design your floor plan, fabricate your millwork, and ship the space to you. The build itself is most straightforward in the tri-state area, but design and equipment can travel almost anywhere.
The workshop is a flat fee. Consultation and design are quoted to your specific project, and the build is a separate, fully itemized contract. Every stage is priced on its own, so you always know exactly what you're paying for.
No. The workshop and consultation stand entirely on their own, and what you learn is yours to keep. Most people choose to build with us because we can hit their budget in a way piecing it out can't, but there's never an obligation.
It depends on the space, the scope, and your local permits, so we won't hand you a fake number. What we will do is give you a realistic, specific timeline during the consultation, once we've seen what you're working with.
Where you are, what you picture, and what's holding you back. We'll tell you honestly what your next step looks like. No pressure, no pitch.
