Beans & Malt | Best Coffee, Cafe, Brunch, Beer pub in Flushing, NY — Restaurant in New York

I walked into this place because my usual place was opening later than expected on a brisk morning. Having worked in speciality coffee for 5+ years- I usually like to think of all factors in a cafe. I have some mixed opinions of these factors below.

The only thing that kind of grinded my gears is their coffee loyalty card system. Most cafes either do a POS system app that gives points based on amount spent, or stamps based on amount of drinks bought. This place is based on transactions- which i found out after my $30+ order. It incentivices people to order items separately (assuming you want to use this card to gain a free whatever), or like myself feel like i missed out on some opportunity to "gain more."

Atmosphere: Pros: Incredibly nice, well designed, spacious with lots of indirect sunshine through their massive and beautiful windows. Incredibly vibe worthy playlist and volume of music. Even has a cute music vinyl playing corner. Tons of different seating options- from dining tables, banquettes, sofas, lounge areas. They as well provide no laptop spaces for certain tables- which is nice to keep all day laptoppers to a minimum and increase availability for others. Cons: Bathroom has so much potentional but currently giving cement empty cell. The beer can holder is an open cabinet (cold near it) with awful florencent lighting, and quite a loud humming- this could easily be switched to a large glass fridge and might even cut down on energy use/bills.

Coffee: Surprisngly well pulled shots, atleast B+ compared to the higher end speciality cafes throughout nyc. Great menu of options, and even some pretty tasty homemade syrups. Matcha is much stronger than other places, slightly chalky.

Food: Cute selection of foods. Our sandwich was actually quite tasty (salmon), and came with some pickled additions on the side. Only slight offput was it was quite oily. They offer soft serve options that looks delicious, and even offer free peanuts. (Located next to the beer fridge)

All in all enjoyed this place, and will be coming back here to explore the...

Used to come here when it was White Noise and the quality of the drinks and food hasn’t changed. Got a hot chocolate with whole milk and lavender syrup. I knew it smelled off, like corn, but I drank it anyway. Not sure if they used spoiled milk, the chocolate was bad, or the syrup is spoiled, but I had horrendous diarrhea from it because that’s the only thing I drank from there. They blast rap music with foul language as if it’s a club while people congregate to study. They did that when it was White Noise so nothing really has changed. The only good things I can say about this place is that it’s spacious, the bagel was tasty and the Wi-Fi is reliable. One other thing. I was working on a project, and I don’t know what it was but the staff was cleaning around my table since it was near closing time, and did not smile at me or say a word, just kept staring at me with a frown - did not say goodnight even though he saw I was leaving. While I was working on my project, he kept recleaning the table aggressively and slamming the empty chairs around as if me sitting there was pissing him off because he couldn’t clean the whole table because I was sitting there. I don’t know if it’s because I’m not Asian but I did not feel...

I don't know what's with the weeknight crew at this place. When I come on the weekend in the daytime, there's such a difference. The food is made well, the staff smiles to customers. This is the second weeknight I've come and the staff seemed grim, unsmiling and just mumble you're welcome when you thank them. I ordered a second thing while there a few minutes in, and one of the staff just shoves the food across the counter at me and walks away in silence after I say politely thank you. It was near closing time and they all looked tired, ready to go home and didn't want to be there. The bagel they gave me had butter that tasted of flavorless water. It was really disgusting. I don't know if I came on a bad day, but it just seems like the weeknight crew are not as enthusiastic as the weekend staff. On the upside, their Wi-Fi is fast, they have nice tables, plenty of space, a couch, board games,...