Safavieh Eliza BCT8005A bar cart

The Eliza is the brass cart I would point most people toward, and the one whose capacity I would least take on trust. It is a two-tier cart with Greek key ends in a plated brass finish and two shelves of tempered black glass: 31.3 inches wide, 16 deep and 33 tall on its listing, and 30.86 lb. It is the pick in the brass roundup because it is the one brass cart that is properly in stock and publishes a load figure at all.

The difficulty is that Safavieh publishes two. Its product page and the Amazon listing say 40 lb. The assembly instructions Safavieh links from that same product page say 22 lb. That gap is the main subject of this page, because it is the difference between about fourteen bottles and about seven.

The published figures

Safavieh's product page: 31.3 inches wide, 16 deep, 33 tall. 30.86 lb. Metal, with the finish listed as plating on the frame and tempered glass on the shelves, in brass with black glass. A Greek key design. Made in Taiwan, for residential use only, assembly required, and a weight capacity of 40 lb. The Amazon listing gives the same footprint, rounds the weight to 31 lb and, when it was read for this site, gave the same 40 lb.

The assembly instructions: 31.5 inches wide, 16.02 deep, 35.63 tall, and a weight capacity of 22 lb. Two glass panels, two glass frames, four Greek key side pieces, four wheels, sixteen bolts and eight suction cups, put together with the Allen wrench supplied. Safavieh estimates thirty minutes.

So the two documents disagree on two figures. The width and depth differences are rounding. The capacity and the height are not, and on this site a manufacturer contradicting itself gets printed rather than quietly resolved — the reasoning is on how we pick.

40 lb or 22 lb: plan for 22

When one manufacturer publishes two capacity figures for the same model number, the lower one is the only figure you can rely on without knowing which document is out of date — and nothing on either says which that is.

In bottles, the difference is not academic. A full 750 ml bottle weighs roughly 2.5 to 3 lb. At 40 lb that is about fourteen bottles across both shelves; at 22 lb it is about seven, before a glass, an ice bucket or a tray has gone on. Seven covers the six-bottle starter list with a little room to spare, which is a perfectly good home bar. It is not a cart you fill.

Two details make the lower figure worth taking seriously here. The first is that the cart weighs 30.86 lb empty, so at 22 lb it is rated to carry less than it weighs — the same pattern as the SAFAVIEH Couture Isabellina, rated at 30 lb on a 33 lb frame. Heavy metal frames with low whole-cart ratings are what the brass roundup found across the category.

The second is the shelves. The instructions have you place the suction cups on the tabs of each glass frame and set the tempered glass in on top of them; nothing is glued. Tempered glass is the right material for a shelf at knee height, because if it does break it breaks into small blunt pieces rather than shards. But a whole-cart figure is the only guidance Safavieh gives on what those shelves were designed to carry, and it has given two.

33 inches or 35.63

The height disagreement matters less, but it is worth a minute. The product page says 33 inches and the instructions say 35.63. Neither says whether its figure includes the wheels, and 2.63 inches is the kind of difference casters could account for — but that is a guess, labeled as one.

Both sit inside the 32 to 36 inch band that lets you pour standing up. Where the difference matters is clearance: under a window sill, a wall cabinet or a low-hung picture, plan for 35.63.

What neither figure tells you is the height you actually pour at. In Safavieh's own photographs the Greek key loops at each corner rise above the top shelf, and an overall height is measured to the highest point of the frame — so the glass you set a drink on is lower than either published number, by an amount Safavieh does not publish. If working height matters to you, that is the measurement to ask for. The serving band itself is worked through on how tall a bar cart should be.

The Greek key frame

The ends are the whole look. Four Greek key side pieces — the squared meander pattern — form the two ends, stepping out into loops at each corner above the top shelf and below the bottom one, and the two glass frames bolt between them. To my eye it reads as Hollywood Regency rather than mid-century: it sits better beside lacquer, velvet and a gilt mirror than beside teak and walnut.

Two practical consequences follow. There is no handle in the parts list, so the corner loops are what you take hold of to move it. And the shelves have no raised edge: in Safavieh's photographs the glass sits in a thin flat frame, with the key loops only at the corners, so nothing along the long sides stops a bottle that gets knocked. On a cart with glass shelves, that is the argument for keeping bottles toward the middle and glassware on a tray.

Safavieh does not publish the gap between the two shelves either. In its photographs the space between them is roughly half the height of the cart, which on either published height is well clear of the 11.8 inches a standard 750 ml bottle needs. Why two tiers stand bottles better than three is worked through on the shelf-gap page.

Living with plated brass and black glass

The finish field reads plating and the metal color reads brass. As with every brass cart at this price, that is an applied finish over metal rather than solid brass: it will not develop a patina, and where it scratches, a different color shows underneath. Safavieh's own instructions tell you to assemble the cart on a soft surface to avoid scratching the finish, which is worth taking literally — do the whole job on the flattened carton or a rug.

The care instructions are brief: dust with a soft, dry cloth, never use an abrasive cleaner, and for the glass, spray a small amount of glass cleaner onto a lint-free cloth rather than onto the cart. That last step keeps cleaner off the plated frame. Brass polish is the other thing to keep away from it — it is made for solid brass and will cut through an applied finish.

Black glass is the better shelf for this look. The mirrored glass brass carts usually come with shows every fingerprint and water ring from across a room, because a mirror shows you the light source as well as the surface. Black glass is still a gloss surface and still shows dust and dried drips, so it wants the dry cloth more often than a wood or matte shelf would, but it is a far quieter surface to live with. The full trade is on glass versus mirrored shelves.

The wheels, and the tightening note

Four wheels push into the tube ends of the side pieces. Neither Safavieh's page, the Amazon listing nor the instructions mentions a brake, the parts list calls them simply wheels, and Safavieh's close-up photograph shows a plain swivel caster with no lever. Assume none. On a hard floor the cart will move when it is knocked, and a cart with glass shelves is the one you least want rolling. What to look for instead is on wheels and casters.

At 30.86 lb it sits just past the point where this site calls a cart a two-handed object. It will not wander when you pour, and moving it is a deliberate job rather than a nudge — which, given the wheels, is no bad thing.

The instructions also say the cart may require periodic tightening. Keep the Allen wrench. Sixteen bolts hold two glass frames between four side pieces, and on a cart whose shelves sit on suction cups, a frame that has started to shift when you push it is worth catching early.

Eliza or Isabellina

Safavieh's two deepest carts answer different questions. The Isabellina, from its Couture line, is 18 inches deep to the Eliza's 16 — enough for a full-size tray with margin — on a 33 lb iron frame. It is also 30 inches tall, below the serving band, it lists 30 lb for the whole cart, and its listing gives two different footprints. One caveat since this page was written: the brass version of the Isabellina is gone, and the one still sold is black iron with clear glass, so it is no longer a brass-against-brass comparison.

The Eliza is the taller cart and the better one to stand and pour at, and on its listed 40 lb it out-rates the Isabellina. On its instructions' 22 lb, it does not. If you are loading bottles rather than glassware, that reversal is the reason to read both documents before choosing. The Eliza is set against the rest of the finish in the brass roundup.

Who should buy it

Someone who wants a brass cart that looks like furniture and will be used for pouring rather than storage: a handful of bottles, a few glasses, an ice bucket when there are guests. Sixteen inches of depth on the outside dimension clears the 12 inch side of a standard 12 by 16 inch tray, the height is a comfortable standing one on either published figure, and black glass is easier to live with than the mirrored shelves this look usually comes with.

It also suits a room where the cart is on show rather than tucked into a corridor. Greek key ends are a strong shape, and a furniture brand's proportions read very differently from a flat-pack cart in a similar color. If what you want is the warm metal rather than this particular frame, the gold alternatives are cheaper and publish better numbers, and they are in the gold roundup.

Who should not

Anyone planning to keep a collection on it. Twenty-two pounds is about seven bottles, and a cart rated for fewer bottles than you own gets overloaded by accident rather than on purpose. If bottles are the point, a steel cart publishing a per-shelf rating is the right tool, and how to read one is on bar cart weight capacity.

Anyone who needs a third tier, because on two shelves the bottom one has to hold both the spares and everything not in use. Anyone with a dog, a toddler or a narrow hallway likely to bump it, because unbraked wheels, shelves without a raised edge and glass are a poor combination on a hard floor. And anyone who wants brass for the way it ages: this is plating, and it will scratch rather than patina.

Before you order

Measure for the larger of each published figure — 31.5 inches wide, 16.02 deep, 35.63 tall. Plan the load to 22 lb. Keep the Allen wrench somewhere you will find it. Safavieh's product page also carries a California Proposition 65 warning for nickel compounds, which is worth knowing if you check for those.