Cool Beans — Restaurant in Town of Queensbury

Honestly a really bizarre experience. The cashier seemed to struggle to comprehend an order of two on-menu meals and drinks (a half decaf coffee and an iced latte). The decaf was empty, so there was then a back and forth of "we should make more decaf" and "let's make more decaf". At some point some of the order was entered into the register, the sandwiches were made and given to me, and I tried to pay with a card and was informed cash only. Grabbed money from the ATM, someone else went to the register and paid, so there was another struggle to get my order put in to the register (again, two sandwiches, two drinks). About 1/2 of what was ordered was entered, so not wanting to short change (mistake), I corrected it. We sat down, ate our sandwiches, waited on drinks. So the two employees started going around replacing trash bags and sweeping. No decaf was ever brewed, no latte was ever made. When asked for water, the owner (I assume) simply held up a garbage bag as if to say "this is far more important than a customer's hydration". Then the lunch crowd showed up and any hope of getting what I paid for disappeared. When informed that we didn't get what we paid for, we got essentially a shrug and an oh well. Not sure how a business like that can operate or be well reviewed, but to each their own. If you don't like actually getting the goods you paid for, highly...

TL;DR: Possibly best coffee in Queensbury, decent breakfast sandwiches, bring cash/ATM card.

I would drive a couple extra miles to get my morning coffee from Cool Bean's on Quaker Road. Somehow, their coffee's always smoother and doesn't taste at-all burnt or over-sweetened compared to many other local... shall we say... spots. I always enjoy seeing what special flavors are available each morning; their French Toast Flavor is one of my favs.

The staff is friendly, prompt, and attentive to needs (I barely mentioned the cream was running low and the barista dude began refilling it), even in the face of busy caffeine-seeking mobs of people who seem to descend on the shop in waves some mornings.

Fair amount of indoor seating (especially outside rush times), plenty of outdoor seating, parking can get a little tricky in peak times, 1lb of beans is around $14, so a little pricey (for my taste) for bulk beans, but not unheard-of.

"Impossible" vegetarian meat substitutes available, not sure about milk alternatives (generally regular cream or half-and-half is available on the counter) but I photographed the menus so check those out. Maybe they've got some oat milk hidden behind the counter for dairy-free folk.

They're cash-only but have an ATM inside. Frequent-visitor coffee and sandwich stamp-cards available at the register.

This is not a paid promotion, I just like...

So the bagels and sandwiches are always great. I ordered a toasted everything bagel with dill cream cheese and it was an A+. I've never gotten a sandwich there that I didn't like.

Butttt the lattes are pretty bad. In fact, I'm pretty sure they're not even using espresso; it tastes like watered down coffee with milk. While I was excited for all of the unique flavor options (I got Blueberry Fields, which is a Blueberry vanilla latte, and a nutella latte for my wife), the execution of those lattes was straight terrible.

You know when you go to Dunkin and you get a coffee that somehow tastes 'Grey'? That's exactly how I would describe the flavor of my Blueberry Fields; Grey, without being able to taste the espresso that's supposed to be in my latte.

I tried my wife's Nutella latte, and it had the exact same coffeeless flavor. Both were awful.

I read another review and noticed someone else claimed to see them pull 4 espresso shots from a single puck...and that totally makes sense and is what my drink tasted like, although I wasn't paying attention to the making process.

I rarely leave reviews, but the fact that a coffee shop's lattes are SO awful needed...