Countertop Cocktail Station 69cm, ABS, Ice Well and Speed Rail

Venues with a stainless steel counter they cannot touch. That is the case in cafés and restaurants: the counter is a welded unit over the undercounter fridges, delivered by the maker in one piece, and a tenant would not alter it even if they wanted to. As long as it stays flat, that counter serves coffee and covers but cannot carry an aperitivo service, because ice, fruit and bottles end up scattered. This cocktail station arrives assembled and sits on top.

On a flat counter the ice is in a bucket at the back, the fruit in three tubs that someone moves every time they pass, the bottles on the back bar behind you. Every drink becomes three trips, and none of them is where it is needed. The trade standard is two minutes per cocktail: with ice, fruit and bottles in three different places those two minutes do not hold, and during the rush the queue stops moving.

The cocktail station puts the three points half a metre apart, within the arm’s reach of whoever is building the drink. It is the logic of a drop-in unit, achieved without opening up the counter.

If you can open up the counter, the drop-in workstation is still the cleanest option, because it disappears below the working line. If you cannot, the countertop version is not a compromise: it is the only way to have the same station.

• Material: ABS and acrylic, weather-resistant
• Width: 69cm
• Depth: 47cm
• Height: 24cm with the lid closed, 41.5cm with the lid open
• Ice well: 1, insulated with polyurethane foam
• Fruit trays: 4, with airtight lids
• Speed rail: 1 in ABS, 580mm, 6 bottles
• Installation: countertop, no cutting and no drain
• Lighting: 2 white LEDs on the bar top and front, LED version only
• LED power: mains socket with transformer
• Parcel weight: 12kg
• Colour: black
• Patent: patented design

Two versions: with LED lighting and without

The cocktail station comes in two versions, and the only difference is the light. The version without LEDs is the working station: open it, load it and serve. The LED version has two white lights on the bar top and the front, and earns its keep when the lights go down: the pouring point is visible from across the room, and at a catering event it tells guests where the drinks are without a sign. Everything else is identical: same dimensions, same insulated ice well, same four trays, same six-bottle speed rail.

With the lid closed, the counter goes back to the café

At eight in the morning the lid is closed and the counter is a counter again: cups go on it, breakfast is served, nobody sees a cocktail station. At six in the evening it opens, and the bar works the aperitivo. That is why this cocktail station fits venues running two services without making them choose which one to do well.

The ice well is insulated, and you notice at the end of the night

The polyurethane foam between the well and the shell slows melting: ice loaded before service is still ice at the end of it, instead of turning into water to throw away halfway through the night. A steel bucket on the counter does the opposite, because it exchanges heat with the counter and the room.

Four fruit trays with airtight lids

The lid is what changes close-down. Closed, the trays keep cut citrus, olives and garnishes free of undercounter smells and stop them drying out: fruit prepped in the previous evening’s mise en place is still usable the next day, and the GP does not pay twice for the same lemon.

Six bottles in the speed rail, not on the back bar

The 580mm ABS speed rail holds the six house pours in a row: gin, vodka, rum, bitter, vermouth and the spirit of the drinks list. Six bottles build almost all of a short aperitivo menu: they stay in front of you, and nobody turns round to the back bar in the middle of an order.

Measure the 41.5cm with the lid open first

That is the clearance needed above the counter, and above the counter there is almost always something already: a shelf, a wall cabinet, the coffee machine. Before ordering, measure the free height with a tape, and the 69 x 47cm of counter the cocktail station takes up when closed. It is the check that avoids the only possible mistake on a product that otherwise needs no work.

It works the same outdoors

ABS and acrylic are weather-resistant, so the same station works on a terrace, by the pool, on a catering table or on an outdoor bar. Load the ice, serve, close it and bring it in: the version without LEDs has nothing to unplug, the LED version only the plug.

At home, on the kitchen island

Anyone making cocktails at home has the same problem on a smaller scale: ice melting in the bucket while the first round is made, citrus cut on a saucer, bottles all over the worktop. The cocktail station sits on the island or the table, keeps the ice solid all evening and puts six bottles in a row in front of whoever is pouring. When the guests leave, close it and put it away: it takes up 69 x 47cm, the size of a large tray.

Choose the countertop cocktail station if

Your counter is stainless steel and cannot be touched. Your premises are rented. You serve coffee by day and aperitivo by night on the same counter. You need a second pouring point for the Saturday rush and want it set up in a minute. If instead you are designing the bar counter now, look at drop-in wells first: with the counter open, it pays to build in.

Two stations, two bartenders

On a long counter two stations side by side let two people work without crossing, each with their own ice and their own six bottles. The more you buy, the less you pay: 4 pieces -5%, 6 -7%, 8 -10%, on the same item. It is the sum caterers do, taking one per station.

FAQ

Does the bar counter need altering? No. The countertop cocktail station sits on the finished counter: no cutting, no drilling, no connection to a drain or water supply.

How much free counter space is needed? 69cm wide by 47cm deep, plus 41.5cm of clearance above the counter to open the lid.

How many bottles does it hold? Six, in the 580mm ABS speed rail included with the station.

Can it be used outdoors? Yes. ABS and acrylic are stated to be weather-resistant, so it works on terraces, by the pool and at outdoor service.

What changes in the LED version? Two white LEDs light the bar top and the front, powered from a mains socket through the transformer. Dimensions, well, trays and speed rail are the same as the version without lights.

How does it differ from the drop-in workstation? The kit is the same; the installation changes. Drop-in needs the counter cut and a drain with a trap, countertop does not, and at the end of service it closes and comes off.

Dispatched from Rome, Italy. The other stations, drop-in or counter-mounted, are in the workstation category.