Good Eats

GOOD EATS: B.D. BEANS CAFÉ & COFFEE CO. ‘Feel Free To Linger’

By Rick Allen • Photos By John Jernigan

It seems that an improperly brewed cappuccino launched a trend of coffee houses in Marion County some 20 years ago.

As my former colleague Christopher Lloyd reported, “It was the bitterest cappuccino they’d ever had.” The “they” were Rebecca Bennett and Donna Lafferty.

“They said to themselves: Wouldn’t it be nice to have a cozy little place to go sit and read while sipping an aromatic latte or espresso?” he wrote. “And maybe cruise the Web and e-mail distant relatives, too?” A few days after that Star-Banner report in February 1999, they opened B.D. Bean’s Internet Café on Abshier Boulevard in Belleview, believed to be the first standalone coffee shop in Marion County.

Not long after, a crop of other coffee shops sprouted throughout the area, but not until Starbucks came to town in 2003 did any of them have any longevity.

Twenty-two years later and B.D. Beans is still here, a feat few eateries can boast even in non-COVID times. And it still serves a darn good cup of coffee, along with a board of breakfast and lunch delights.

Rebecca laughed when reminded of the early experience. “I’d forgotten about that,” she says. “And actually, it wasn’t that lousy. We went to a restaurant in Summerfield that had a new espresso machine but had no clue how to operate it.”

Once they made the decision to open, where would it go? In her travels, Rebecca became aware of a one-time house on Hwy. 27/301/441 a bit south of Lassie’s Restaurant, which closed in April 2014 and was razed a few months later.

“I knew as soon as I walked in,” she recalls, “this was the place.”

B.D. Bean’s Internet Café opened at the end of February 1999 as an Internet café, an oasis for Web browsing in an era before laptops, tablets, and smart phones. Later that year, the Belleview Chamber of Commerce recognized B.D. Beans as the “New Business of the Year.”

Within a few years, however, a breakfast and lunch menu replaced the one on the computers. Her staff was spending more time as IT techs than culinarians, so she pulled the plug.

“We didn’t have anybody who was tech-savvy,” Rebecca once told the Star-Banner. “And as we got busier, we needed the space. People started bringing their laptops anyway, so we just pulled the monitors out and went to just wireless.”

Twenty-two years in one spot is quite a feat for any eatery. Food-service website fsrmagazine.com reports that 60 percent of restaurants “don’t make it past their first year and 80 percent go out of business within five years.” And that was in 2019, before the coronavirus pandemic decimated the restaurant industry.

Maybe it’s the kitsch. Maybe it’s the coffee. Maybe it’s both. Whatever. For B.D. Beans, it certainly works.

WHERE: Now known as B.D. Beans Café & Coffee Co., it’s where it’s been for more than two decades: 5148 SE Abshier Blvd., right next door to KFC. However, if you’re not looking, you can easily zip right past its brightly painted fence facing the highway.

WHY GO: For starters, the coffee. It’s smooth and bold, yet mellow, and that’s just in the self-serve carafes on a sideboard. If you want something fancier, there’s a board of espresso drinks that can be made hot or cold.

If you’re eating in, just grab one of the handy mugs and pour yourself a cup. B.D. Beans uses Java Dawg Coffee, an organic, Fair Trade coffee roasted in Sarasota, which they grind from beans just before brewing a fresh pot.

And feel free to linger in the sense of comfort and peace you encounter as soon as you walk in the door.

BEST TIME TO GO: Hours are 8am to 3pm; the dine-in peak typically is between noon and 1pm when things can get a bit busy. But even then there’s no rush, just sit and enjoy.

During the past year, the dining areas have been especially empty. Bennett had to close shop for two and a half months, but traffic is beginning to pick up again.

YOU’LL BE IMPRESSED BY: The ambiance. Most coffee shops are mostly reflections of each other, with uncluttered walls and a sterile atmosphere. B.D. Beans is cozy kitsch-plus, with painted (and named) mannequins—Jazz Man, Dr. Seuss, Lily— sporting handmade jewelry, doodads and geegaws everywhere you look, and a gallery of original art on every wall, most of it for sale. It helps refresh the walls and helps out local artists.

Moreover, this was a home before it was converted for commercial use.

“I was told it was 67 years old when I got it,” Rebecca says. “A woman came in once and told me when she was a girl she used to play with the girl who lived here.”

YOU MUST TRY: Besides the coffee menu, I’d suggest the grilled havarti on focaccia. This is a generous slab of melty havarti cheese, which is mild, creamy, buttery, and “cooks like eggs,” Rebecca says. It’s one of her favorite cheeses. This sandwich has been offered since the early days. “It’s one of our most popular,” she adds, along with the grilled portabella mushroom on focaccia.

And did I mention the coffee? You don’t last two decades as a coffee house hereabouts if you don’t serve a good cup o’ joe!

INSIDER: Unless you have a hearty appetite, don’t order the “regular” omelet. It’s made with four eggs plus add-ons. “Yeah, it’s pretty big,” our server admitted. The ”small” omelet is made with a more-normal three eggs.

FRIENDLY STAFF: Absolutely. From the moment you walk in until you walk out, you’re treated like family.

One sign of that typically is the longevity of the staff. Most of Rebecca’s staff has been with her for a good portion of the 22 years. Some of her long-term staff had found other employment while B.D. Beans was COVID closed, but Rebecca sees her new hires fitting right in. Frankly, I couldn’t distinguish long-term from new in my recent visits.

FINAL WORD: While we chatted, I mentioned that one of my kids would like to open a coffee shop one day. Rebecca offered a word of advice: “Whatever you do, keep it consistent,” even if you have to raise a price or take something off the menu. “Your customers will know if you change something.

“When you get people in the door,” Rebecca adds, “you want them to be happy.”

She then tells a story of how she once changed her usual mayonnaise used in her chicken, egg, and tuna salads to save a few bucks. “My patrons could tell the difference,” she says. And although she’d opened only one of a four-gallon order, she called her distributor to say, “Take it back and bring me my usual.”

Then she adds, “Listen to your business. It will tell you what it wants if you listen.”

WANT TO KNOW MORE?

B.D. Beans can be found online at bdbeanscafe.com. It’s also on Facebook, where it enjoys a 4.8 out of 5 rating. B.D. Beans Café & Coffee Co. is open 8am-3pm Monday-Saturday. Call them at 245-3077.