Those who know me quite well, know that I've been quite lyrical about the
Bagels & Beans. Those who read my journal often, know I go there a lot.
I first went to the Bagels & Beans when Jurjen and I dated for half a year. He remembered me jumping enthousiastically up and down a few weeks before, wanting to have a drink there but then we didn't go.
I fell in love with the mega-cups of delicious coffee, the great bagels, the even more delicious cheesecake (omg! <333) and I knew one of the waitresses, and Jurjen knew her and another one.
Nowadays, the owners know us, greet us, ask us how we're doing and/or the other way 'round. The first time we went there is now over 2,5 years ago, today's the day Jurjen and I live together for 3 years today (and yes calculus, we were barely dating, go read in my archive Mr. Nosey), but somehow, it had lost it's charm. We soon figured out the problem was the quality and ambience. The owners made our coffees perfect, but the (new) personnel screws up the milkfoam, and the frappuccino's (no, it's not just cold coffee! Where's my ice? My texture?!)
Now it's usually busy on a Saturday, that's normal, but never seemed a problem. Today we walked in, and pretty much every table that was not taken, was covered in used plates and cups. Except the ones in the back. Ok, no problem, we just sat, they were usually prompt in cleaning up as soon as you sat down, even though it had never been such a mess.
One employee started clearing the table next to us, so we made room for her to clear ours too. We've waited five minutes for that to happen, but apparently, she still wasn't planning to clean ours.
Eventually she asked if we just sat down, we replied yes, she removed the clutter, and immediatley took our drink orders. (Frappuccino)
We got our frappuccino almost immediately, so it was pre-fab I guess.
Usually they ask what (or actually, if it's not us, or a new person who doesn't know us: if) you want to have something to eat with the drink. But this time, the waitress put down the drinks and walked away before we could even attempt to order.
When we finished our drinks, I had allready made several attempts to attract any attention from one of the 5 personnel-members, but no-one seemed to notice. Oh, that's a lie. One said: 'Hi', and walked away.
Fed up with this, we've waited 15 minutes, we left. We did pay, but we didn't tip, like we always do.
Jurjen and I decided to go to
Anne & Max instead. We went there before a week ago, and we were very content.
It's a clean, quite modern interior, with comfortable chairs and benches, something that the B&B lacks.
They have a fun menu, with drinks called 'lovesick' (lots of chocolate and caramel in your coffee), a Tiramisu drink, and that sort of things.
B&B used to have a funny menu, but dialed that down a bit.
Jurjen ordered some frappuccino with coconut, I ordered a lovesick frapppucino, and we both ordered a ciabatta sandwich with smoked chicken, bacon, lettuce, tomato, cucumber and some special homemade dressing. Me likey!
I didn't enjoy the lovesick as much as I enjoyed the Tiramisu, little overkill of flavours for a frap, but it might be great in a hot coffee. And I forgot to tell them I didn't want any whipped cream on my frap. Whoops.
Another thing what I like about Anne & Max is that all the girls wear a shirt with 'Anne', and I assume the guys (no guy to be found! o.O) would wear 'Max' on theirs. The toilets are marked Anne & Max as well.
On the website, you can mail Anne, or Max.
Sounds like a bit overkill, but it's quite subtle, and I think it's cute ^_^
Oh, and your stamp-card (or how they call it: We-are-particularly-proud-that-you-will-c
ome-more-often-to-us-card (literally!)) is a fun addition. You get a stamp with each hot drink (but they give them to us with fraps as well XD), and when you saved 9 stamps, you get a free hot beverage. And it has the text ' I want to share everything with you' or ' Breakfast together tomorrow?' on it, above the address. Maybe they have even more versions, but we have only two cards, two, because we forgot our first today, so we had to have another one. =3
Conclusion: I might be ready for a new coffee shop. I still love the bagels, and the cheesecake, but I just don't like sitting at B&B anymore.
My artritis gets worse, and those hard wooden chairs and benches just don't work for me.
And if the service remains like this, it'll be only 'to go' soon @ B&B anyway. Fuds to take with me on my bike to the forest or something.
And Jurjen and I decided that from now on, we'll only go to B&B on weekdays, when the owners are present. So there.
I have a new coffeeshop. I wonder if théy have coffee to go. =3
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