Bars, Cafes, Food

Mrs. Beans: Both kinds of brew

Sorry, this establishment is no longer operating. :( They were supposed to transfer to a new location, though this has yet to be confirmed. We’ll keep you all posted.

A few years ago a friend and I went out for snacks at a café: I ordered a coffee drink, and he asked for a Coke. The barista looked at him like he had lost his mind. They didn’t serve soda, he said. He may as well have added, get your context right, buster.

For the most part, context holds true: coffee and tea at a café, beer and mixed drinks at a bar (where the coffee, if any, will just be a basic brew for the designated driver). The page-long drinks list with everything on it is left to the larger restaurants that cater to everyone. BF, however, is home to a number of places that cater to both types of brew: the kind that gets you drunk, and the kind that gets you sober.

Mrs. Beans along Aguirre Avenue is one such café. A veteran of the BF restaurant scene, Mrs. Beans has been around for eight years, first serving a limited menu of coffee drinks and pasta, then introducing crepes, and now, pushed by market forces and the well-meaning suggestions of friends needing a place to hang out at night, offering beer, wine, bottled mixed drinks, and pulutan as well.

The charming interior of Mrs. Beans is big enough for four tables, most of them with daybed-like benches. It’s cozy and intimate, the sort of place you go to after work for some coffee and quiet time, a good alternative to the bustling, crowded Starbucks or the world. This vibe carries over to the evenings: whereas the neighboring bars are jampacked and with rowdy young patrons, having a drink at Mrs. Beans is more like knocking a few bottles back with old friends after setting out some porch furniture in front of your own home.

The tightly edited menu has hot and cold coffee drinks (ranging in price from P50 for Brewed Coffee, P70 for a Latte, P99 for a Frappe, and P120 for liquor-laced blends); various dessert crepes (from P100 to P170); pasta and sandwich meals (from P95 to P150); and pulutan hits (from the ubiquitous Cheesesticks and Garlic Mushrooms, both P65 to a couple of sausages at P160). Beer and bottled mixed drinks go for 30 bucks, and a glass of wine for 70 bucks.

Mrs. Beans serves what I like to think of as grown up comfort food: basic but sophisticated, and above all, restrained. The Caramel Crepe (P100), for instance, manages to keep from being cloying; the grainy caramel has a hint of bitterness that perfectly complements the ice cream hiding inside the crepe. The pasta isn’t drowning in sauce. The sandwiches are simply assembled with herbed ciabbata bread, the kind that sit nicely in the belly when you finish, just right, nothing too heavy (could be bitin for hearty eaters though).

If you’re looking for a nice quiet afternoon to spend alone with your thoughts, or a long night of alcohol-aided philosophical discussions with friends, consider this tiny unobtrusive café-cum-bar. At least your designated driver will be able to enjoy something more than basic black.

Mrs. Beans Coffee
318 Aguirre Avenue,
Phase 3, BF Homes Paranaque
820-7653
Open Monday to Saturday, 3PM - 12MN
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Back to Bag of Beans
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