Those folks at Beany Green are at it again! No sooner do I visit/write about a place, than Prue and the team are changing things about! The latest example is the Beany Green at Regent’s Place, or Baby Beany as I think of it, which has undergone something of a facelift/reorganisation since going on the Coffee Spot this time last year.

The offering (healthy and innovative breakfasts, lunches and salads, backed up by Aussie-inspired cakes, all washed down with The Roasting Party espressos/flat whites) hasn’t changed. However, the look-and-feel has. The bench and tables along the left-hand wall has gone, replaced by two far more utilitarian high-tables at right-angles to the wall. Similarly, the counter’s been reorganised, the espresso machine being moved from all the way at the back to right at the front. Fortunately, the most important ingredient of all, the Beany Green goodness, is still available by the bucket-load!

You can see what I made of the changes after the gallery.

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Before we start, a word about nomenclature. Back when I first wrote about Beany Green and didn’t know any better, I called the various Beanys (Beanies? Beanii?) after the railway stations they were closest to. Hence my ex-local, Paddington branch, and the swish new Liverpool Street, with this branch getting the tag of the Euston branch, it being a brisk five minutes’ walk west of London’s Euston station.

At the time, this made sense, particularly for visitors to London. After all, Paddington makes more sense than Sheldon Square or Little Venice, while Liverpool Street tells you more about the location than Broadgate Circle. Regardless, I’ve decided to use this update to rename the Euston Branch to “Regent’s Place”, after the business/shopping square that Baby Beany calls home. This is solely to avoid confusion with the kiosk on Euston station forecourt which no-one talks about except to say, “no, not that one, the one in Regent’s Place”.

With that out of the way, what about the changes at Regent’s Place? For what it’s worth, I don’t like change. When I rule the world, that along with the law banning parking in front of coffee shops (it ruins the photos) I’m thinking of a statute making it illegal to change a coffee shop once it’s appeared on the Coffee Spot. However, that would stand in the way of progress, so I probably won’t (I’m totally banning parking though).

On a more serious note, I understand the reasons for the change. Moving the espresso machine to the window at the front makes a lot of sense from an advertising point of view. It also makes one of my favourite activities, chatting with the baristas, a lot easier. I do miss the old system though, where you came in, ordered, then made your way to the back to collect your coffee. These days it can be a little hard to tell who of the crowd by the door is waiting to order and who is waiting to collect. That said, the staff tell me that the new system works very well, particularly at lunchtime.

The other change, the seating, is also understandable. While I liked the long, padded bench (once describing it as “perhaps the most comfortable seat in all Beany-land”) it wasn’t the most convenient arrangement, requiring you (unless you sat at the ends) to squeeze past the other customers to get to/from your seat. The high tables are much more accessible and, when all’s said and done, other than the South Bank container (and the new serving hatch at Broadgate Circle) this is the most takeaway-orientated Beany, so seats you can quickly and easily slip into/out of makes a lot of sense.

There’s a full write-up of Beany Green, Regent’s Place, including a complete gallery, in its main entry. You can also see what I made of it in my original write-up.

You can also see what I made of all the other branches of Beany Green that I’ve visited. Beany Green won the 2015 Coffee Spot Happiest Staff Award was a runner-up for the  Best Takeaway Coffee Award.

Disclaimer: In the second half of 2015, Beany Green launched a bond to fund its future expansion. I invested in this bond, and, like all bond-holders, receive free coffee as a reward. My decision to write this update on Beany Green was in no way influenced by my investment.

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