Sorry, it must have been another Barney I know.

Deja vu? And I'm not just talking about seeing a second Bean Around the World on Main street just off Broadway. I'm talking about the fact that BATW is right next to Cafe Barney just like the BATW location on South Granville. The two joints took over the restaurant and cafe formerly known as Monsoon and Soma (Soma has a new location which opened fall '07 in the old vegan bistro formerly known as Hatch).

Cafe Barney has a clean décor like a Pier 1 showroom. It's seemingly more spacious and airy than its predecessor. The staff seem like it is going for hiring the Main street kind of gals and it is serving up a lot of the same fare that it has at its Granville location. To be honest, although the restaurant has history on the Granville strip, I wasn't all that impressed with this Cafe B. In the huevos rancheros I had,it claimed that it had fresh salsa but it was jarred salsa with some tomatoes cut up and added in, and my co-host seemed to be a little bit overwhelmed by the amount of sausage in her omlette. I know that I am treading in areas that I don't normally go but I have to say that my first impression of Cafe Barney was a little bit disappointing.

Will I go back again? Of course I will. The food was not so bad that I was repulsed into never returning. I just won't get the huevos rancheros again. The place has just opened in the past couple of months so they must have a few kinks to work out just like any other joint.

As for the coffee? I didn't actually have any. It looked just like any other utilitarian coffee I've ever had, even at Barney's on Granville. I'll just have to come back and have a second look at the cafe I thought I recognized.

Out of 5 soft poached huevos

Scene: 3 Very nice people. Our server was accommodating and attentive. As far as the rest of the staff? After working in restaurants when I was younger, I was always told having conversations about your social life out amongst customers while doing prep work was tacky. I can now see why.
As for the clientel, the people in there seemed mostly like the people who I mentioned who would search for this kind of food. Maybe they were people from South Granville who were playing tourist in the SOMA area.

Grub: 2 Like I said it wasn't repulsive. The menu had some variation but pretty straight up like a Pier 1 showroom. If you are looking for your up front no surprises, non vegan, non obscure vegetable prepared on a regular stove, then this place would be great.

Coffee: TBA – I'm going to assume it's utilitarian. I doubt that I will go with an americano the next time I go there even though it is probably offered on the menu. If I feel like an americano, I would rather walk the extra ten meters and go to BATW next door.

Bean Around the World? Yea, been there.

Bean Around the World seems like a bit of an institution on the Main Street scene. It is located on one of the seemingly unlikely popular locales. But its huge windows, its simple decor and the corner space with a long South facing sidewalk patio, makes for an ideal place to meet friends for a cup of brew and some baked goods or a panini. It seems that to work there you need to be early twenties and have that cool "Main Street" hipster attitude. The crowd there is as varied as it gets.

Perhaps because there are several BATW locales around the city people feel like they are going to a place where they know what they are going get every time - almost verging on being the dreaded "chain". The actual coffee there is actually mediocre. I find the coffee at times almost too hot - if that's possible - and when they make their Americanos, I find that they water it down too much even when you request the smaller size cup filled three quarters full. The Banana bread (I prefer the B-bread with chocolate chips in it)is great. All of the baking is quite tasty - they have some creative and scrumptious muffin creations you need to try. The cookies are good, the danish kind of rounds are sweet and tart, and if they have the pie available, you might want to treat yourself.

On a rating out of 5 banana bread slices

Scene: 3 - It is sometimes too busy to find a seat so you have to wait around and shark or be sharked for a seat. The line up can run the length of the counter which means that if you are sitting by the line, your conversation is open to all those standing beside you or vice versa. The main bonus is that south facing window and patio on a sunny day. The mix of the people who go there kind of makes it a little unclear about the target market demographic. Of course one could argue that based on how busy it can be, the target market is coffee drinkers. While you are there, enjoy the fact that there seems to be countless plain clothed and uniformed police officers.
Grub: 4 Baked goods are good.
Coffee: 3 Better than utilitarian but still not good enough to say that I drink it to enjoy it.