Jessica S.
Yelp
Coffee is always the first thing my husband needs to start his day, so after once again parking at Union Square, we did a quick search to find a coffee shop nearby that was open and had outdoor seating so we could relax with our puppy. Beanstalk checked all those boxes, so off we went.
They weren't exceptionally busy when we arrived, and we were able to claim one of the two outdoor tables they have available. My husband went in to order (Dirty Chai for me [$5.75), latte for him [$4.95] plus a sausage Cragel for us to share [$10.75]). He was given a number and came out to sit with us while we waited for the drinks and the Cragel.
What is a Cragel, you ask? Well, I'll tell ya: it's a bagel and a croissant Frankenstein'd together. I'd never heard of or tried one before and knew I'd hate myself if I let the opportunity to sample one pass me by. We got the sandwich option to offer a bit of sustenance before we got on with our day.
As much as we enjoyed this spot, I have to take a star off for the service. Or, for the miscommunication around the service. Remember how I said above that my husband was given a number for our table when he ordered? We put that number (SUPER cute artwork on it, btw, I had to take a picture) while we waited. Maybe three minutes later one of the employees came out and said, "Your drinks are ready on the counter" and then walked back in.
Now, we have no issue with having to pick our drinks up. But I took issue with two things in this situation: a) when my husband got the number, the employee said, "we'll bring everything out in a moment". "Everything", in this case, we took to mean "all the things you ordered"; and 2) the employee who came out to tell us our drinks were sitting on the counter could have easily, I don't know, brought the drinks to us? Like, would it have been that much effort for her to carry two cups 50 feet to our table?
Anyway, the dirty Chai was good and my husband enjoyed his latte. We were both pleased by the texture of the Cragel (my husband is neither a bagel or croissant super-fan, so I didn't expect him to like it.) The Cragel had the crispy flakiness of a croissant with the density of a bagel. It was odd, it took a second for my brain to process everything, but I found I really enjoyed it. So much so that when I went inside to chuck our cups I took a moment to see if I could order a dozen of the Cragel to go. Because I had every intention of stopping here before we drove back to San Diego. Alas, it didn't seem to be possible, so I was left with just the memory of that bready moment to hold me over.