The Top 5 Coffee Shop Menu Design Ideas (2024)
Looking to create or refresh your cafe menu? Check out these tips and examples to bring your ideas to life.
Justin GuinnAuthor
RESOURCE Coffee Shop Menu Templates
Use these coffee shop menu templates as a starting point for your menu design or to give your menu a refresh.
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| BUILT FOR RESTAURANTSGreat coffee shops have to serve great coffee. Once you’ve checked that no-brainer box, coming up with new coffee shop menu ideas can be a creative exploration.
New menu ideas for your coffee shop should align with your shop’s aesthetic and its capabilities. Fortunately, there’s a nearly limitless supply of new coffee shop menu ideas to inspire your drink and food menu.
No kitchen? No worries — you can bring in locally made pastries or other foods from other purveyors, and still charm the coffee-holics in your community by giving them a place to hangout and bust out their laptops. But, if you do have the kitchen space, it may be worth testing some made-to-order foods on your menu.
Let’s explore how you can brainstorm fresh and fun menu ideas to make your coffee shop the go-to spot for java in your community.
Key Takeaways
Balance Popularity with Profitability: Not every menu item can be low-cost and high-profit. Your menu has to be your engine for profitability.
Offering Popular Food and Drink Items: This includes popular items like bagels, croissants, and soups. Also, drink items like cold brew, espresso, and cappuccino.
Cost it All Out: A critical step for any coffee shop menu is calculating all of its items costs-per-serving.
Drink Around: Take notice of what other coffee shops and similar establishments are doing in your local area. Make note of any gaps that your new menu ideas could easily fill.
Consider the Seasons: Seasonality (like pumpkin spice lattes day for example) drives demand. This is definitely worth keeping in mind as you curate new menu ideas for your coffee shop.
Get Breakfast Items on the Menu: Customers love convenience. If they’re snagging a morning coffee, and there’s breakfast and brunch available too, it only makes their lives much easier.
Package Beans for Sale: Make it so your customers can take your beans home to make their own cup of coffee. Set margins, package beans up, and create displays by your register.
Consider Tea Drinkers: Dedicate space on your menu for some teas. They’re easy to assemble. All you need is hot water and artisanal tea bags, and you’re good to go.
Take Inspiration from Across the Globe: There are tons of opportunities out there to attract new audiences by keeping tabs on trends that folks are chatting about around the world.
Let's dive into these examples further.
Coffee Shop Menu Templates
Use these coffee shop menu templates as a starting point for your menu design or to give your menu a refresh.
Engineer your coffee shop menu to balance popularity with profitability
The goal with any menu, whether it’s a coffee shop, an ice cream parlor, or a Michelin-star restaurant, is to balance popular items with profitable items.
Not every mug and dish can be a low-cost, high-profit heavy lifter. At the same time, your menu has to be your engine for profitability. Striking a healthy balance between the two is critical. Using
1. Consider Offering Popular Food and Drink Items
When considering coffee shop food and drink items, think about popular and universally loved cafe foods and coffee roasts that can draw in a diverse customer base. Here are some food and drink menu ideas:
tools like Toast's POS system, you can easily track which items are your best-sellers and which ones are most profitable, helping you make data-driven decisions for your menu.
Here are a few ideas to help you create a new coffee shop menu that’s impressive and profitable.
Popular Food Items
Bagels - Freshly baked bagels served with a variety of spreads like cream cheese, butter, and jam.
Croissants - Flaky and buttery croissants, including options like almond, chocolate, and plain.
Soups - A selection of hearty soups, ideal for a light lunch or a warm snack.
Sweets - An assortment of sweet treats, including chocolate chip cookies, danishes with various fillings, a variety of donuts, traditional scones, and sweet or savory tarts.
Paninis - Grilled panini sandwiches with various fillings.
Waffles - Golden, crispy waffles served with a selection of toppings such as syrup, berries, and whipped cream.
Popular Drink Items
Cold Brew - Refreshing cold brew coffee, perfect for hot days and coffee enthusiasts.
Espresso - High-quality espresso shots, made from beans roasted by top-notch roasters.
Cappuccinos - Classic cappuccinos with a perfect balance of espresso, steamed milk, and foam.
Americanos - Bold americanos made by diluting espresso with hot water, offering a rich coffee flavor.
Mocha - A blend of espresso, steamed milk, and chocolate, perfect for those who love a sweet and rich coffee experience.
Smoothies - Healthy and refreshing smoothies made with fresh fruits and vegetables.
2. Cost it all out
A critical step for any menu idea is calculating its costs per serving. With costs increasing across the board for food establishments, it’s important to implement costing exercises and tools to add precision to your operation.
This is as true for a 30,000-unit franchise chain like Starbucks, as it is for an independent neighborhood coffee house. Your menu ideas must be profitable — whether in liquid or solid form. That means you must be fully aware of what that profitability is for each menu item.
Manual costing methods could probably serve you just fine if you only served bulk drip coffee. Once you start adding in milk options, syrups, multiple brews, food items, and more, you will need automated costing tools to ensure accuracy. Neither you, your team, nor your bookkeeper or accountant have time to pour through invoices to track price changes — especially these days with all the price fluctuations.
When it comes to costing tools, it’s essential to start with something that builds an accurate data foundation. Invoice processing automation does exactly this while also removing the burden of manual invoice and costing work. These tools digitize accounts payable data from your invoices to give you the full picture of your costs.
Restaurant Cost Control Guide
Use this guide to learn more about your restaurant costs, how to track them, and steps you can take to help maximize your profitability.
3. Drink around
Take stock of what other coffee shops and similar establishments are doing in your area. Notice any gaps that your new menu ideas could easily fill.
For example, bubble tea has had quite the moment in recent years. Perhaps it hasn’t made it to your town yet. In that case, bubble tea may make for a great new menu idea to test out.
Yet, filling cuisine gaps is only half the battle. Don’t be afraid to lean in the opposite direction as you’re scouting around. Maybe your coffee shop has yet to adopt the latest food and drink trend. Time to bite the bullet and consider incorporating it into your coffee shop. It could generate guaranteed income while you brew up other unique menu ideas behind the scenes.
4. Consider limiting items to certain seasons
Coffee shops and seasonality means (and you know where we’re going with this -) Pumpkin Spice Lattes!
In all seriousness, would pumpkin spice lattes be anywhere near as popular if we could get them all year? Their seasonality drives their demand. This is definitely worth keeping in mind as you curate new menu ideas for your coffee shop.
You don’t have to only stick to nationwide holiday seasons either. Let your local seasonality be your guide for new ideas. Maybe the strawberry season is big in your area. This could be a brilliant way to develop one or multiple seasonal offerings that will bring more customers through your doors.
“Consumers of specialty coffee want to know as much information as possible about their coffee and they want information about its journey from the farm to their cup. Seasonality is an integral part of this story.”
Stephen Paweleck
Owner of Django Coffee Co
5 effective coffee shop menu design examples for inspiration
Get breakfast items on the menu — lunch too!
Customers love convenience. If they’re snagging a morning coffee, and there’s breakfast and brunch available too, it only makes their lives easier. Even if you’re thriving on folks ordering coffee drinks alone, you can further monetize your existing customer base with portable hot items, as well as cold items stored in refrigeration. No one can resist a delicious, handheld breakfast sandwich or salad, just like the one linked below from social media!
Package those beans for home
You’ve tasted hundreds — even thousands — of coffee beans to figure out what to brew at your shop. After going through all that trouble, you owe it to your customers to let them take your glorious beans home to make their own cup of coffee. Set your margins, package those beans up, and create a beautiful display of your beans by your register for customers to peruse.
Keep it funky fresh for your tea drinkers
Look, we get it. This is about coffee shop menu ideas and not tea house menu ideas. But, here’s the deal - tea drinkers are here to stay. So why not dedicate a little space on your menu for some lovely teas? Plus, tea is ridiculously easy to assemble. All you need is hot water and artisanal tea bags, and you’re good to go!
Embrace the reasons for the season
Just as everyone knows, Saint Patrick is the patron saint of making whatever you’re serving turn green — and people love him for it. Whether it’s mint frappes in mid-March or the infamous PSL in the Fall, adding seasonal specials to your menu can be a great way to mix it up and gain some new customers.
Take inspiration from across the globe
Coffee and food trends are constantly changing across the globe. There are tons of opportunities out there to attract new audiences by keeping tabs on trends that folks are chatting about. As long as you make it delicious, everyone - even folks that have never heard of the trendy drink - will be back for more.
Using Toast’s reporting and analytics tools, you can track the performance of these new trends and adjust your menu to meet customer demand.
Adding you to the brew!
The grind that goes into running a specialty coffee shop is very real. It’s a gnarly business that can take no prisoners and show no mercy at times. At the same time, it can be the most genuinely rewarding industry out there.
Your place of business is where people start their day, catch up with a dear friend, get fuel for a busy afternoon, and so much more. Having fresh food and drink menu items is a guaranteed way to simplify your customers' scramble for breakfast, brunch, lunch, or a snack, while also boosting your coffee shop’s profitability.
Looking for more coffee shop ideas? Don’t miss On the Line’s article on how to open a coffee shop, with tons of ideas for jumpstarting your new business.
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DISCLAIMER: This information is provided for general informational purposes only, and publication does not constitute an endorsement. Toast does not warrant the accuracy or completeness of any information, text, graphics, links, or other items contained within this content. Toast does not guarantee you will achieve any specific results if you follow any advice herein. It may be advisable for you to consult with a professional such as a lawyer, accountant, or business advisor for advice specific to your situation.
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