I Found a “Drinks Fridge” That Isn’t an Eyesore

Welcome to Someone Buy This!, a monthly shopping column featuring the fun, the frivolous, and the practical from a very discerning shopper.

Our refrigerator had been overflowing for almost a year. Between pre-prepped lunches, the week’s dinner ingredients, and an obscene amount of condiments, adding or removing anything from the fridge involved a high stakes game of Tetris. "We need a drinks fridge," I joked to my boyfriend, referring to the suburban phenomenon of having a second fridge in the basement or garage.

That joke turned into a serious search for something in the wine fridge family, specifically a fridge that wouldn’t stick out like a sore thumb in our very open-plan apartment. There are tons of wine fridges out there but they all looked too obvious—too "fridgey." Enter Rocco, a drinks fridge cleverly disguised as a sleek bar cabinet. A sucker for both reeded glass and a yellow colorway, I reached out to the team and soon enough one was on its way for testing. 

The cost, I think, is what will give many of you pause. Rocco currently retails for $1,295, and while that’s more than a mini-fridge or a wine fridge, it is unique enough to be in its own league. Sure, you can buy a regular wine fridge for around $500, but it’s going to look like a wine fridge. What you’re getting here is a high-quality drinks fridge that doesn’t scream, "I’M A REFRIGERATOR." I wanted to free up space in our main fridge without sacrificing aesthetics, so for my purposes it’s worth it.

Rocco offers free ground shipping or white glove delivery for $150, and I opted for the latter because it’s 150 pounds with packaging and recommended for apartment buildings or homes with stairs. The shipping company reached out to schedule a delivery date and when it arrived, the delivery guys assembled Rocco and moved it into the apartment. (They took the box and packing materials with them, which I super appreciated.) I let the fridge sit unplugged for 24 hours as instructed and returned the next day to load it up. I gleefully moved drinks, edibles, and even beauty products from our main fridge to Rocco. Once it was all set up, I was ready to start testing.

Who is she? 

Rocco makes the fridge in three colors: white, graphite, and yellow—not only my favorite but also the most-ordered color according to the company. (If these options don't appeal to you, they tell me a top-secret new color is dropping this summer!)

The exterior has a few clever design elements. The top surface of the fridge is great for pouring or mixing drinks and can also hold barware or general decor. The top is inset about a half-inch, giving you some protection in case you spill while playing bartender. Rocco’s reeded glass door disguises what’s in the fridge (who wants to look at cans?) and, according to the company, "helps diffuse light for better wine preservation." The fridge’s feet and angled base create visual space right under the glass door, which really makes the fridge look like a piece of furniture.

In terms of capacity, this fridge can hold 27 bottles of wine, 88 cans or a mix of both. On the inside, Rocco’s drawers are the hidden stars of the show. No drinks will be left behind in this fridge because the drawers pull out all the way. The grates at the base of each drawer are reversible, with one side made to hold cans and the other optimized for bottles. These grates are super easy to flip, no tools necessary, you just pick them up. The drawers themselves are also adjustable if you find you need a bit more height. (You do need a screwdriver for that but it’s fairly simple.)

Bells? Whistles? 

Like many new appliances these days, Rocco comes with an app, which took me all of five minutes to set up. Within a day or two of connecting it to the app, Rocco can start recognizing what’s on each of your shelves, by both the amount and, surprisingly, the brand. I didn’t actually experience this until a few days ago, when I opened the Rocco app and was shocked to see that it knew I had a can of Olipop in there, randomly purchased at the grocery store a few days prior. How did it know?

Rocco’s CTO Tom Hutchinson tells me it’s the beta version of the company’s Sight System. "The fridge’s built-in sensors use advanced machine learning (and a little magic) to match what they see in your fridge against our library of drinks, letting you see inside your fridge from your phone," Hutchinson says via a PR rep. A few days after the Rocco app recognized the Olipop can, I opened the app again to find that it identified my supermarket-brand seltzers and even my THC seltzers! My fridge’s stock shown in the app is slightly inaccurate — the can/bottle totals are correct but the brand/label breakdown is not — but I expect that will improve over time as the beta evolves. Even so, I know how my shelves are organized and being able to check my stock while I’m at the grocery store is pretty cool.

Is it actually good at what it does?

We’ve established that Rocco is beautiful and the technology is impressive, but the real question is performance—how well does it fridge? There are two temperature zones and three modes you can play with depending on how quickly you want your drinks to cool down. Party mode, for example, anticipates a lot of opening and closing, and the fridge will work harder to bring your drinks to the desired temperature. I’ve been impressed with how quiet the Rocco is. Even on party mode, I can’t really hear it unless I’m sitting right next to it.

I’ve found that the bottom drawer is the perfect place for eye masks, eye creams, and even THC edibles. I wish this wasn’t true because frankly it’s embarrassing, but every time my boyfriend and I open up the fridge we say: "GOD, I love this thing."

Rocco delivers both aesthetically and functionally. Between the reeded glass door and its bright yellow exterior, the fridge blends into our decor seamlessly, only noticeable when you want it to be. During a recent game night, none of our guests noticed the fridge until I opened it to grab a bottle. I was delighted—they oohed and ahhed—and it was a beautiful moment. 

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