The Bean — Restaurant in New York

tl;dr: Really delightful coffee/espresso—Sweet, well balanced, ethically obtained. Big fan. Customer service here is pretty mid to bad, despite my intense desire to want to like them Atmosphere is more of a takeout coffee place with a few chairs and tables to stop in for a few minutes before heading out again. Not the sort of place you want to hang at for hours.

Long story long: Okay, here's the deal: I LOVE the espresso here. Excellent coffee, beautiful espresso, and this is coming from someone who has worked in the coffee industry for many years. Service, on the other hand, has always been iffy. I've been here a number of times (often in Sundays, but othe days as well) as I am in the area quite regularly, and I WANT to like this place so much because their coffee is so excellent. And yet, every time I've been here, I've had issues with their service and wait time.

First, their baristas don't seem to be particularly inclined to be friendly. I'm not saying they have to be exuberant and bending backwards for me, but a smile and some manners wouold be nice. Instead, I have received snappy comments, impatience, and a general sense of distaste toward my presence. They take their good ole time making my coffee and I often end up standing there for close to 10-15 minutes, despite only being one or two customers in the shop (including me). At one time, they even did not have what I ordered and then let me and my partner stand their for fifteen minutes or so, until I went up and inquired about my order, to which they informed me they didn't have the type of pourover coffee I ordered available. (I guess they just weren't going to tell me?)

Atmosphere is fine—The financial district is a small place attached to a business building, so isn't necessarily the kind of place that has a cozy environment, but also doesn't really need...

This has been my go-to coffee shop in the neighborhood for the last five years. It has a nice vibe, good coffee, etc... Unfortunately, over the last few months it has started to go downhill.

For years, my favorite foods to purchase at the Bean have been the muffins and the cookies. I would buy a muffin almost every day for breakfast. I bought the cookies less often, but they were incredible particularly the chocolate smores cookie. I have even brought some of these cookies to parties and they always get rave reviews. The Bean has over the last few months replaced both the cookies and the muffins with cheaper (and cheaper tasting) muffins and cookies. They are much worse and I am despondent. I have made my opinions known to staff members but no one cares.

The main thing that keeps me going to The Bean now is habit and the fact that they allow dogs to come inside. At the rate things are going they will ban dogs next.

Please, Bean. I love you but I am not happy with how things have been progressing recently. Bring back the old muffins...

The barista I dealt with at this location was very nasty and rude to me. I stood at the cashier for quite a while waiting for him to take my order while all the while his back was turned without even acknowledge a customer standing there waiting. What he should have said was “I’ll be with you in a minute mam” and that would’ve been enough. But no, when I said excuse me, he barked “ I’m taking care of other people”. And I’ve worked in a busy customer service environments probably since he’s been in diapers and I know that snapping at customers is not how you provide good service. Clearly this barista with a baseball cap dark thick hair and mustache about 5’7 needs to be retrained on how to talk to all people. I told him now he completely lost a customer and left. In continuing to allow this pouty attitude towards customers, you’re going to loose patrons and will eventually loose business because no-one should be talked down and condescended just ro...