The Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf, 7502 Melrose Ave, Los Angeles

You’re walking down Melrose in the 90-degree heat, stopping in air-conditioned shops you wouldn’t normally go into.  The clothes are cute, BUT!  you haven’t been a size 2 since junior high school.  Just as you’re about to try on a skirt that would barely cover the top of your thighs, you notice some girls wandering with shopping bags and icy drinks topped with whipped cream!  You bolt from the store and stalk them until there’s a moment in their chatter for you to butt in.  They tell you that The Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf is on the corner of Gardner and Melrose, at which point you don’t care how bad it makes you sweat, you run there!

The outside tables are full of sexy young things, guys in sweats and baseball hats, a homeless woman talking to herself, and, a woman feeding her baby a smoothie from the Jamba Juice next door.  Inside there are few places to sit because the long line requires a lot of room, but the A/C is blasting, the scent of coffee is alluring, and the constant sound of the blenders make it impossible for you to chat up the cute guy in front of you.  

You don’t need to look at the menu because this is The Coffee Bean, the same chain where you pick up a morning latte and muffin or bagel next to your office. Hmm, if you’re in the mood to treat yourself, you might get the ice blended with chocolate covered cherries and piece of cheesecake!    Avoiding diary?  How about a Juice blend.  But you know you’re going to order an ice blended mocha, even though they do use that powder with 50 ingredients listed on the package that you need to question a chemist about (as soon as there’s a break in the roar of the blenders, you’re going to ask that cute guy if he’s a chemist!).

But it’s all worth it when you finally get that chilly plastic cup in your hand with the domed top full of canned whipped cream.  You sit outside and watch the young and beautiful strut down the street and are thankful you don’t have to hit anymore teen-sized clothing stores, because you can cool off right here in front of the Melrose Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf…

Review by: Christine Offutt

Posted: Sunday, July 30, 2006