A Green River, WY diner buying a combi oven, a walk-in cooler or new dining-room tables can look at equipment financing for items with serial numbers and resale value, working capital for the stock and payroll around them, and a merchant cash advance as a separate option.
Ranges, fryers, coolers, combi ovens and dish machines are equipment; tables and chairs are movable furnishings. Both can be financed. Plumbing, wiring and anything attached to the building are building work outside this site.
Bar and Restaurant Loans: Ranges, Fryers and Back-Bar Coolers
A diner's cook line is a row of separate machines: a six-burner range, a pair of fryers, a griddle, a back-bar cooler under the pass. When one wears out, the replacement can pull the others into the same quote, because matching heights, gas connections at the appliance and stainless finishes line up better when they are planned together.
Invented example, for illustration: a $5,800 range, $7,600 of fryers and a $3,900 back-bar cooler make a $17,300 line. In this example, financed for 36 months at 11.75% a year, the line carries a $572.54 monthly payment. In this example the line costs $20,611.44 across all 36 payments.
Full-service restaurants (NAICS 722511) number 35 establishments with paid staff in Sweetwater County, WY in the 2023 County Business Patterns, with 600 employees across them; 8 of those 35 had fewer than five. Limited-service restaurants (NAICS 722513) are listed separately, at 33 establishments. More on both is on the restaurants page.
Bars appear in their own code: drinking places (NAICS 7224) had 15 establishments and 145 paid employees in the county that year. A bar with a kitchen behind it buys the same fryers and coolers as a diner, and its back-bar coolers and glass washers are equipment too. Within ZIP 82935, the ZIP Code Business Patterns file lists 31 accommodation and food services establishments for 2023, and 22.6% of that ZIP count had fewer than five employees. The Green River, WY page lists county counts for the oilfield, repair, retail and health care trades as well.
How to Get Restaurant Funding? Start With the Equipment Quote
An equipment request is built around the quote. A complete quote names each item, its model number, its price and the delivery and setup charge from the vendor. With that in hand, the conversation is about one clear purchase instead of a general need for money.
- A dated quote from the equipment dealer, with model numbers.
- Recent business bank statements.
- Card processing statements, which show sales by day and week.
- The lease on the restaurant space, so the partner can see the location is secured.
- Any existing equipment payments or advances already on the books.
Stock and payroll are different costs. A food order sized for a new menu item or the staff hours to train on a new oven fit working capital, a lump sum or draw that is not tied to one machine.
Combi Oven, Dish Machine and Walk-In: Pricing the Equipment Before Asking
Pricing the purchase before the call keeps the request to the right size. The table below is an invented quote for four items a diner might buy together. The dining-room tables and chairs are movable furnishings and can sit in the same request as the kitchen equipment.
| Item | Quoted price |
|---|---|
| Combi oven | $21,500 |
| Dish machine | $9,800 |
| Walk-in cooler box and refrigeration unit | $18,600 |
| Dining-room tables and chairs | $8,400 |
| Total | $58,300 |
In this example the total is $58,300. The walk-in cooler box and its refrigeration unit are equipment. Running a new electrical circuit to it, or adding a floor drain is work on the building, which this site does not cover; a landlord or the property owner handles that.
Equipment financing can carry the whole quote or each item on its own term. Splitting it can make sense when the items wear out at different rates: a combi oven and a walk-in cooler can run for years, while tables and chairs take hard daily use and may be replaced sooner, so a shorter term on the furnishings keeps payments from outliving them.
Used equipment is another route. A reconditioned range or a second-hand dish machine from a dealer still has a serial number and a price on paper, and a partner can review it the same way as new. The quote should say what condition the item is in and whether the dealer stands behind it.
Equipment Financing or a Merchant Cash Advance for a Diner's Fryer Line?
A merchant cash advance is not a loan. The provider buys a slice of the card sales the restaurant has not made yet, then takes its share from each day's card batch until the agreed total is in. On a slow week less is collected; on a busy week more is.
Invented example, for illustration: a $17,300 advance at a 1.30 factor rate sets the total to be collected at $22,490.00, taken as 12% of daily card sales. In this example that total is $1,878.56 more than the $20,611.44 of payments on the financed fryer line above.
The comparison is not only cost. The advance's collections move with card sales, while the equipment payment is the same every month. The merchant cash advance page explains how the holdback works, and a partner can walk through both offers when they are on the table.
By Ridgehollow Finance · Updated
