Native Bean, 50 Avenue A, New York

The Berber décor hung on the café's walls, the storied plates dangling from the ceiling, and the hand whittled figurines perched on plain wood shelves purportedly comes from Morocco.  Ornate flower vases, lavish fruit bowls, and sullied brass water pitchers are all for sale.  A trendy coffee bar doubling as a trendy art gallery seems to make trendy sense.  But in order for Native Bean to rate three cups it needs to improve its humdrum collection of coffees, teas, bagels and pastries.  And they need to shelve the plastic plates, bowls and utensils.  Native Bean does have, however, an outstanding assortment of spreads like baked salmon, vegan tofu, white fish, lox and scallion.  Baristas make the smoothies w/juice or milk.  Fresh juices include carrot, carrot and orange, carrot and beet.  Yogurt shakes come w/or w/o a shot of protein powder.  Vegetarian Lentil and White Bean w/Escarole, Today's Soups, are quite popular.  A diminutive café by most standards, ten nondescript tables and twenty eclectic chairs jammed into a burnt yellow cube, Native Bean attracts (mostly) singles that use notepads, labtops and handheld gadgets.  If all tables are occupied patrons tend to double up w/strangers, which, in case you don't know it, is the East Village way to meet your next lover. 

Review by: albert bliss

Posted: Friday, July 10, 2009