The Rocco Fridge was made for the algorithm. Colors that pop, cool branding, strong social media marketing, and opaque wavy glass. I was averse to it, but my less cynical girlfriend likes to lean into it. She calls it the Silly Beverage or Tinned Fish Industrial Complex, products that are aggressively marketed on social media towards Millennials and older Zoomers who spend unduly on wine and oysters.
She is the perfect demographic, as shown by her anonymous Bon Appétit Food Diary, for which she was unfairly bullied on Reddit and Facebook. She got one Rocco Fridge ad after interacting with a post. It turned into ten ads, which turned into her showing me, which turned into me getting Rocco Fridge ads, which turned into me going down a rabbit hole on the world of smart drinks fridges and seeing that this thing sells out every time it goes on sale. I decided I had to try it. I had to see what was up. Because though other outlets, Redditors, and influencers have reviewed these things, none of them do drinking like Esquire. This is right in our lane, and it’s my job to do this research for y’all.
My verdict: the Rocco Fridge fucking rocks.
Rocco Super Smart Fridge
Cons
- Price seems high, though it’s about on par with other options
- Didn’t find myself using the smart features all that often
- Sells out every time new stock available
The Biggest Hurdle: Price.
If you couldn’t tell from the intro, I wasn’t looking to review this thing. I wrote it off as high-price Instagram bait. But the fact that it consistently sold out at $1,500 is what turned me. There had to be something about it. How could you justify that price tag over, a cheap under-counter drinks fridge or beautiful bar cabinet. The answer is it’s the only product on the market that can replace both of those things. It looks good enough to be a fancy bar cabinet, so long as it fits your home aesthetic, and it performs amazingly well as a drinks fridge.
Does that justify the price? It can for some. Considering I would readily suggest bar cabinets from Soho Home, CB2, and Ralph Lauren that dwarf this one in price, $1,500 really is quite affordable in the grand scheme. It’s case by case based on how much you can pay, and what your aesthetic is. If I lived alone, I wouldn’t buy it because my design taste leans Americana RRL—chesterfield sofas and antique rugs. But my girlfriend loves mid-century stuff and things that are a bit more whimsical. That said, love is compromise, and for what it’s worth, the bright yellow Rocco really grew on me. If it fits your taste in anyway, you’re going to love it when it’s in your home.
People might call me crazy, but I think it’s at the perfect price point for what it is. A great drinks fridge and a bar cabinet with a youthful look, I think selling out four times is only the start for the Rocco Fridge. Buy one before everyone gets one.
The Best Thing About It: Performance.
This is why I put this thing in our 2024 Gadget Awards. More than the smart features, which I’ll get to, it’s just a great little fridge. First, it’s sturdy. The powder-coated steel is thick. That plus the compressor make it heavy as hell, but it’s obvious from the start that it’s built to last. Second, the temperature control, which can be done in-app or with buttons inside the fridge, is accurate and has a range of 37° to 64°. On the low end, it’s colder than a wine fridge and great for soft drinks, beers, and ciders. In the middle, it’s great for whites and chilled reds. And on the high end, it’s storage for reds, vermouths, liqueurs. We packed things in that order from bottom to top, keeping the bottom half set to 40°, and the top half set to 55°. Everything would come out at the temperature we wanted.
The other thing is the compressor. It is whisper quiet. When I lived in my college dorm, I went sound blind to the constant hum of a mini fridge, and I was ready to re-learn that skill here. Not at all. There’s four pre-set cooling modes, and the only one that made me aware the fridge was running was “Party Mode,” where it expects a lot of opening and closing, so it runs colder. Add, on top of all of this, the fact that the little foot stands mean you can put it on carpet, and you’ve got a mini fridge that doesn’t have a true competitor.
Where I’m Not Convinced: Smart Features.
The main smart feature is that it scans your contents, recognize the labels and containers, and update your app to show you in real time what you have stocked. It’s impressively accurate, but in practice I never cared much. The main use is you’re out and about, not sure if you have a bottle of white wine or a couple sodas back home, so you check the app and confirm your stock before buying. But think about it, if you’re ever not sure what you have at home, you just buy more. Worst case scenario is you spent money on an extra case of Coke or two bottles of wine. It’s shelf stable, so you… put it away until you need it. For regular consumers, this doesn’t really solve a problem.
My thought is that once Rocco patents this technology, it should be a business to business product. If I ran a distribution business, bar, or restaurant, I’d use it hourly. At home, it just seems like overkill. That said, app control is convenient. Drop or raise temperatures from wherever you are. Turn the light on before guests arrive. That stuff is all nice, but extra, and not a necessity.
The Final Verdict.
So where did I land on the Rocco Fridge after playing with it at home and in the office? Like I said in the intro, it rocks.
Not because it’s the perfect product with the perfect price. Frankly, I think a less-smart model without the drinks scanning—perhaps priced closer to $1,000—would sell like crazy. But the current model, when used as a high-tech bar cabinet or under-cabinet drinks fridge, is still in a class of its own. Until something comes out to rival it, I’m telling every drink lover and foodie type that this thing is worth all the hype.
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