Beans & Bagels

There are dinosaurs in here!!! Ok so that’s about all I got exited about. Disclaimer, I went months ago and haven’t been back. Coffee was ok, shop is suiuuuuuper small and although they have a great space for what could be a great patio, its just awkward. B&B weren’t bad, I just wouldn’t go out of my way to stop in.

Great bagels, great coffee! If you haven’t tried the Almond Brown Sugar Latte you should! They make their flavors in house from real ingredients and they’re are way better than any Starbucks drink could ever dream to be. Love this place and they even remember my name, makes me feel like I’m in a small town coffee house. Plus, you can never go wrong with the dinosaur décor. A+ Beans and Bagels!

I come here pretty much every day. It provides me amazing coffee, and great energy.
Sometimes the lines are out the door but it’s because people have no idea what they want to order. Lines are no problem because they usually have something playing on the tv in the corner. They are currently playing White Christmas. .^_​^.
Great service. Great staff. Confused customers and somewhere to sit if I had time to stick around.

I am a huge fan of this place. The coffee is great: usually a light and dark roast option. The decaf is also really good. The bagels are heavenly and the new pastry chef is delivering great croissants. This is my go to spot for morning coffee for the commute or weekend pastries or bagels for a treat.
Update and pro-​tip:
If you need to make a larger order, you will need to pre-​order, since they don’t make a lot of extra (anti-​food-​waste, which is great). You probably won’t be able to get through on the phone. Unless you want to stop in in person, you can email them at:
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B&B is a central part of the RG neighborhood experience, and is a great model for what «the neighborhood coffee shop» should look like. Coffee is good, food items are good, and pricing reflects what should be considered fair market value ($ 4 spent here buys you more «value» than $ 4 spent at Starbucks). In general they do have a «we are going to do things the way that we are going to do them» attitude, which I applaud, because the location and breadth of their offering is certainly in demand, so it’s fair that they take advantage of that without making the customer feel as if they are being price gouged.
I don’t go here too often, even though I live down the block, but I always have a good experience. Bonus: They stock ChemEx filters, and the price is less than what Amazon charges.
P. S. I did see one of the managers make an employee cry (that was a couple years ago), which I thought was kind of funny. Is that mean?

Unfortunately this café has gone way downhill in terms of food, service and worst of all, coffee. Had quite possibly THE worst iced coffee I’ve ever had this weekend, which is no mean feat. It completely lacked ice and tasted like week old filter coffee watered down. Just awful and undrinkable. The food selection leaves a lot of be desired. A random selection of donuts and a menu board covered in blacked out items.
Prior to the last visit I had pretty rude service from the staff, and the coffee was mediocre at best. I tried to ignore it and kept going back thinking it was a one off, but unfortunately it isn’t. I spent a lot of time there summer 2014 when there used to be lines out the door but this year its a completely different place. And no more pastries :(
Sad really.

Went to B&B to use their Internet and have an ice tea. Purchased an unreasonably priced tea ($ 3.75 for the equivalent of a grande at Starbucks. At S’bucks, a Trenta is $ 3.26 and easily 2x the size). All teas have to be brewed individually which took almost 7 min because they forgot my order. Went to café area and wasn’t able to connect to their Internet (which I tried to do in order to determine what I needed to pickup at the market on my way home). I have installed over 100 networks in my day so connecting to a coffee house network is never an issue for me. Asked front counter if they were having problems, but they just shrugged off my question).
I ended up having to use my cell phone data plan in order to access the Internet and spent $ 3.75 and a large amount of frustration to do so. I understand they are a small coffee shop, but there are certain standards in that industry and having decent Internet is one of them.
Next time I’ll just go spend less money for better tea and better connectivity at the mega conglomerate.

This is the epitome of what the neighborhood coffee shop should be (in my humble opinion). It is run by a friendly staff of folks who enjoy their jobs and interacting with the community.
This isn’t your average Starbucks, and not that there is anything wrong with Starbucks either. But the coffee you’ll find here is made the natural way and traded at fair market prices. And while I don’t think that makes the coffee any better, if you’re the guilt ridden type, you can drink this joe knowing that no puppies were kicked nor were children made homeless in the process. All joking aside, they can also make speciality coffee drinks here as well. Do you know what a Cortado is? Me either! But I got one in NYC once and the only other place I’ve ever been that makes one is Beans and Bagels.
Look I don’t know any of you who will read this review, but I do believe that Beans and Bagels has a little something for you. Veggisaur menu? They got you! Do-​rite-​Donuts your thing? They got you! Just want a cup of black coffee before you hop on the train… eh sorry, that don’t do that well. I’m joking of course.
The long and the short of this place is that I love it and I really think you might too if you stopped on by.

I’ve lived here long enough that I remember when Beans and Bagels opened. I remember thinking to myself years ago, ‘wow, this place is kind of pricey’. I’ve been here a handful of times over the years, always at the suggestion of someone else, and every time I’ve always thought the same thing: the staff can be surly, expect to be turned upside down and shaken so all your money falls out, and the food and coffee is just ok (except for the pain au chocolate which is outstanding).
Clearly, the only reason they stay in business is their proximity to the train. Otherwise, no reason to stop here — even for the pain au chocolate…

This is a tough review for me to write – I usually avoid writing negative reviews. But, in a neighborhood full of fun and friendly businesses (Rockwell’s, Selmarie, Le Café, many others), this place is kind of dreadful, and has had a dark cloud over it for a while. Over a year ago, because of regularly snobby hipster employees who are supercilious and sometimes even malevolent sourpusses, I mostly stopped coming here. I’d stop by once every few months because their pastry chef made such amazing treats. Turns out the pastry chef has quit. I found that out today when I was being barked at by the stern-​faced lady behind the counter. Also, as an added note: they have a full room in which customers can sit and eat, but won’t allow customers to use the bathroom! Only the employees may use it, because obviously us customers are too unbearably awful and dirty to be allowed.

OK. the coffee is good, staff are mostly friendly (though some of them are geeks who don’t even make eye contact) however the problems cannot be simply brushed aside…
PRICES ARE HIGH… For this neighborhood and this location (Leland at Rockwell)… Their prices seem higher than $tabucks. The espresso is $ 3 and so is the small Americano. The bagel with cream cheese is 4 dollars. Well, unless you specifically ask for the 50 mg cream cheese bagel, which is 2.50. For me, they automatically sold me the $ 4 «surprise» of 100 mg cream cheese bagel. I don’t like being cheated and I felt like I was. Breakfast bagels are upwards of $ 6 up to $ 7.50… Is anybody even buying these?
THE SPACE IS AWKWARD. If you want to sit, you have to leave the shop from one door and get inside another door to the next door space, all while holding your cup and whatever else you just purchased. They’ve been there for how many years now? And have not invested any money in re-​configuring this space to make it spacious or more convenient. And it’s not like they don’t have the money, with so many customers and being next to the train stop, and their other two locations. I hope the owner reads this and takes note.
THE RESTROOM — you have to walk through the kitchen to get to the restroom, which is shared between staff and customers. Now, let’s all hope that any grime left by customers doesn’t reach to staff’s hands.
The WiFi is good thing. but it is not password protected (i.e. not encrypted), so any emails or text you send is «visible» i.e. susceptible to being intercepted. If you login to your bank or email, the password is vulnerable to hacking. As would any password, or credit/​financial or otherwise sensitive information, that you send or receive can be intercepted, As a result, I could not connect to my work’s network, and couldn’t get any work done.
Their WEBSITE doesn’t work so you cannot even send them a question, or a compliment or in my case, criticism. In the three browsers I tried, their page does’t open, and instead, you get: «This page requires AC_RunActiveContent.js» (IE, Chrome, and Mozilla)
SERVICE: When I asked for a glass of water and was already moved to the seating space, i.e. the second front door, I was told by one kitchen staff that I had to go back to the other side (other front door) and ask for water there. This meant having to either wait in line again or go in front of the line. I see no reason why the staff couldn’t give me the water, because I was standing next to the bar/​kitchen area, he didn’t even have to come to my table…

Kitchen is always closing early, they are always out of items, food and drinks take extremely long, staff is never friendly and they can never get their credit card machine to work. They should figure things out iut before they go out of business. Seems to be under bad management.

This is one of the worst experiences I’ve had in a long time. Employees are not friendly. They messed up my order. When I asked to speak with the manager he was rude and aggressive and basically yelled at me even though I was the customer. I will never go back. My niece has had a similar experience when she went and they just ignored her so she walked out. There are better places location is all they have since they are next to the train.

20 minutes for an overpriced, extremely average sandwich. Cool place. Tip: the dining area is in a separate building from the coffee shop so the staff doesn’t have to look at the disappointment in your face.

I’m giving this place one star solely based on the awful attitude of the workers. No smiles and act like you are bothering them.
The food is good, perhaps 3 stars, and coffee is close to starbucks quality.
I was in today to pick up a Father’s Day dessert, and the man behind the counter was less than happy to help. Just a complete jerk.
I would recommend any place other than beans and bagels for coffee. Why would anyone support being treated like they don’t matter.

I’ve been coming here for almost 4 years and I just have to say, the last 6 months have been dreadful — it’s the end of my run of spending money here which is sad because it’s the only close coffee and it used to be great.
The service has always been for lack of a better term «challenging.» Most everyone that works there (not all — a couple of great people too) are less than friendly hipsters that act like they’re doing you some kind of favor by interacting with you. They do big business in the morning and the weekends but are not staffed or equipped for this ever. A toasted bagel routinely takes 15 minutes which is absurd. As others mentioned they recently cut back on kitchen hours and now they won’t even toast a bagel early in the week. The coffee has gotten worse and more expensive and the drinks which also take forever are simply VERY average.
The final nail in the coffin is the recent, INSANE price increases — roughly 50% on some items. A breakfast sandwich comprised of a bagel, cheese, one egg and a piece of meat or veggie sausage will now set you back $ 7.50. So many other laughable things on the menu like that — I walked in a few days ago, saw that, laughed and walked out.
It’s really sad because I loved this place for a long time. I just don’t need to be treated like a jerk, both by the staff and the insulting prices — either they have a deeply flawed business model that means they have to charge that much or they simply don’t care and are trying to capitalize on all of the new money that’s moved into the hood.
Bummer.

Low rating is compounded by my experience at their other location on Montrose. I used to live near that one and it was pitch perfect every time: Fast, efficient, friendly and hardly an issue with stock/​inventory.
This location is just a nightmare. There is no cook on duty most days, dwindling your options to croissants and bagels that are constantly running out. It doesn’t help the clientele is mostly breeders with double-​wide strollers jammed into a cramped/​poorly laid out ordering area. Despite its convenient location next to my apartment, I’m constantly walking by saying «nope» to myself and opting for the much, much better First Slice off the Francisco brown line stop.
5 stars for the Montrose location, however!

Sigh. I want to love this place, I really really do.
Pros
+The bagel sandwiches truly ARE delicious. The Xena Warrior Bagel is totally my jam and I could eat it forever.
Cons
–Coffee always tastes burnt.
–Service is slooooooooooooooooow, which wouldn’t be a deal-​breaker except for the very pertinent fact that a huge percentage of their clientele are stopping in on their way to catch the train a few yards away. If you’re (essentially) a train station coffee shop, you need to get orders out in a timely manner so people can catch their got-​dang train.
–Related to the above point — no public restroom.
If this place were in any other location, it’d be great, but if you open a coffee shop next to a train station, please tailor your service accordingly.

Not going back here. The wife and I chose this place due to good overall Unilocal ratings.
It soon became clear that the good reviews were not reliable.
We arrived at 12:30. The menu at this place looks like it was produced only after the receipt of a Freedom of Information Act request. Most of the menu items were blacked out with black tape. In other words, during the lunch rush, most items were blacked out on the menu. There were only two kinds of bagel available, plain and wheat.
I ordered the lox special. It was reasonably good. There were very few other customers but it took 15 minutes to get our order.
The wife ordered the mother jones. Of course, the kitchen was out of pesto. The cashier offered to use mustard instead, but that didn’t make it on to the sandwich. The wife specifically asked for no onions. There was at least an entire onion that she had to pick off the sandwich. This is a problem since onions make her sick. See photo of what no onions looks like. The bread also tasted burnt/​bitter.

What the heck? Isn’t this place supposed to be a friendly local coffee & bagel breakfast place? Apparently not, bad business practice and garbage service.
I went at 10:38 am on a Tuesday only to be told by the frail, snarky, flannel wearing, over sized skull cap wearing hipster the kitchen is closed. And he didn’t say, oh sorry the kitchen is closed, he pointed to the door in the most smug manner & and smugly said, kitchen is closed is says right there on the door. Really?! So bad service. After that I didn’t even grab just a bagel to go.
They are only open till 3:30 to begin with why wouldn’t ya serve breakfast while you’re open? If I wanted to be denied breakfast I would have gone to corporate McDonald’s. But it’s their business, to each their own. I just hate that I will not be supporting this local business.