implementing a french press program

[Gerra]

Hey everyone,
We are setting up a french press restaurant coffee program and are curious what others have found to be successful / unsuccessful in their experience. So far we are thinking of the Bunn HW2 - Baratza Virtuoso Grinders - Le Cafetiere Optima presses - Bodum Clip timers (though admittedly we are looking for a more restaurant-friendly and aesthetically appealing alternative) - to handle roughly 20-40 seat restaurants. Does anyone have any wholesale experience with Le Cafetiere?
Any thoughts on this would be amazingly helpful.
Gerra

[Gerra]

To clarify, we are a wholesale roaster who would be implementing french press programs in a number of restaurants that would be new accounts. The logistics of what equipment is bought by the customer and what is "loaned" to the customer is the tricky part. Hence the lower budget H2O tower and Baratza. After a bunch of great conversations generated from this post we have been thinking of offering two options, would love thoughts....
Option 1:
Bunn HW2 and Baratza loaned to the restaurant. They would then be responsible for buying the actual presses from us. If the water tower proved sluggish or grinder too slow and frustrating they could move to:
Option 2:
Bunn H5E and Bunn G1 bulk grinder sold to restaurant. They would still buy the presses as well.
Balancing the upfront cost of equipment vs likely coffee sales for small 30/40 seat restaurants is a bit taunting. Putting an end to bad after dinner coffee, tempting.
Thanks to all who have provided insight and look forward to hearing more from the field.

[Alistair Durie]

I would suggest the Newco (2 gallon) or Curtis (5 gallon) water towers which have digital readings and can be easily temperature programmed and give a reading which is sometimes nice to know after a lot of water is pulled out of them. There's a lot of restaurants that don't have these and when they get one they start loving to use it for all sorts of purposes... connect it to 220v power if possible for faster recovery.

I love french press over almost every other brewing method, but like any other manual prep it requires a fair amount of attention from the staff which I've found is very difficult to get restaurants to commit to. It seems easy enough, but when you are short staffed and in the thick of lunch rush, manual prep coffee is just going to suffer. Have you considered Technivorm Moccamaster?