Ice cream-cake Restaurants Fitouts

Unlike a standard café, a dessert-focused venue requires extreme precision in temperature and humidity control. While a café focuses heavily on the espresso machine and a small prep area, an ice cream and cake shop is a “controlled environment” business.

The key differences include:

• Specialised Power Requirements: Gelato machines and large-scale refrigeration units have high electrical draws, often requiring 3-phase power upgrades that standard cafés might not need.

• Climate Zoning: You need dedicated “cold zones” for production and “tempered zones” for chocolate or cake decorating to prevent melting, even when the front-of-house is packed with customers.

• High-Visibility Display Engineering: Cake and gelato displays must be fog-free and maintain a perfect temperature balance so the product looks enticing without compromising its structural integrity.

• Specific Health Codes: Handling dairy-based products involves stricter sanitation protocols. Our designs ensure your plumbing and surfaces meet the highest Australian food safety standards for dairy handling.

Absolutely. Because you are dealing with dairy products, sugars, and frequent wash-downs, the flooring in your production and service areas must meet strict Australian health and safety standards. A standard retail floor will not suffice.

The ideal flooring for a dessert venue must offer:

• Non-Slip Texture: Essential for safety, especially around gelato machines and wash stations where condensation or spills can occur.

• Non-Porous Surfaces: Dairy products can harbour bacteria if they seep into grout or porous tiles. We typically recommend epoxy resin or high-grade commercial vinyl with coved skirting (where the floor curves up the wall) to eliminate corners where bacteria can grow.

• Thermal Shock Resistance: In cake production areas, floors may need to withstand the temperature shift between cold storage and ambient prep zones.

• Easy Drainage: We design the floor with a slight fall toward high-quality floor wastes to make the nightly “deep clean” fast and efficient.

Yes, absolutely. Navigating the legal requirements for a food business in Australia is one of the most stressful parts of a fitout, but we handle the entire process for you. Because ice cream and cake shops deal with high-risk food groups (dairy and eggs), the requirements are often stricter than a standard retail store.

Our compliance team manages:

• DA (Development Application): If your shop requires a change of use or significant external modifications, we manage the submission to your local council (e.g., Sydney City, Parramatta, or Bayside Council).

• CDC (Complying Development Certificate): If your project meets specific criteria, we can fast-track the approval through a private certifier, often saving you weeks of waiting.

• Health & Waste Management: We ensure your plans include the necessary grease traps, triple-cell sinks, and specialised floor waste required by Australian health authorities.

• AS 4674-2004 Compliance: Every drawing we produce is designed to meet the Australian Standard for the Design, Construction, and Fit-out of Food Premises.

Yes, you can—and in the modern Australian hospitality market, “theatre” is a massive selling point. Customers love seeing gelato being churned or cakes being decorated in real-time. However, an open-plan dessert shop requires much more sophisticated engineering than a traditional closed kitchen.

To make an open-plan layout successful and compliant, we focus on:

• Acoustic & Heat Barriers: While the plan is “open,” we use strategic glass partitioning or high-velocity “air curtains.” This prevents the heat from your ovens or the noise of your batch freezers from disrupting the customer’s peaceful dining experience.

• Aesthetic Compliance: In an open kitchen, every surface must be “Food Grade” but also “Designer Grade.” We use stainless steel, stone, or high-pressure laminates that are easy to sterilise but look beautiful under pendant lighting.

• Strategic Sightlines: We design the space so customers see the “artistry” (the decorating and the churning) while we tuck the “utility” (the dishwashing area and ingredient storage) behind clever architectural features or half-walls.

• Hygiene Barriers: Even in an open layout, Australian health standards require a clear separation between the public and food preparation surfaces. We integrate custom-designed “sneeze guards” and raised counters that protect your product without blocking the view.