Bean Bag VS Cafe Abir - two of my all time favorite spots... ..AND the weekend dilemma! For real eating, it's Bean Bag, but the hanging out morning mochas or three hours with my butt sunk into that fabulous yellow couch,,,it's always Abir. My friends and I just make two stops.. we've got it down..haha ...

You'll only get me in a new coffee shop if you bring Christian and Sara from Bean Bag along with you! Wouldn't the guilt kill us?

I consider myself poly when it comes to my cafe. Nothing can beat the Tuscany crepe at Bean Bag, but I also crave the super-charged, potentially illegal mocha at Abir. The staff at Bean Bag are fantastically friendly, but then Abir does have the yellow couch that embraces so well and offers a view of all who enter. Both have plenty of eye candy, oh yeah! And you can't beat the outdoor tables. Personally, I don't do my Web surfing at the cafe so I don't mind that there is no free wireless. Who wants to risk getting your laptop stolen anyway?!

i love our 'hood - it's filled with great peeps and great cafes without all the bulls**t - well kinda - sometimes it seems the chicks in abir can get a bit snooty. ok, so i'm not super trendy with 80's slouch boots, and no i don't have a girl mohawk (which i love, i would just look stupid with such a doo). BUT i do have money to pay for my soy latte and i must admit it's a great place to sightsee...

I have to give it to the Beanbag by a hair.

Beanbag...
The good:
- a much better menu all around (unless all you are looking to eat is carbs,)
- free internet access
- usually has slightly friendlier staff, I adore the people working there now.
- $1.29 microbrew pints!!! every day from 3-10pm.
- Mo, the owner, is like the nicest human being I've ever met, the guy was born to run a cafe.
- ambience: warm, cozy, pretty friendly

The bad:
- Beanbag is smaller and not as popular with the laptop crowd, and they have an intense dinner crush sometimes, so sometimes I feel sorta guilty hogging one of their tables for like 6 hours if I'm going there to work. They've never done anything to give me that feeling, that's just my own deal, but still.
- Not enough electrical outlets

Abir:
the good:
- I can sit in Abir all friggin' day and night nursing one cup of coffee and nobody even notices. I honestly don't think they'd care if I sat in there tapping away on my laptop and bought nothing at all.
- nice and sunny, bigger, roomier
- comfy couches
- yerba mate latte, bagel w/ salmon spread. Two things Abir has head & shoulders over the Beanbag.
- always outlets available since they put the power strip in
- kind of a "regular" scene, not since I took the Long Island Rail Road to work every morning have I had such a comforting group of regular, familiar faces every day to not really talk to

The bad:
- they charge for internet service, and in fact today I was not able to get my usual online Surf&Sip signup ($5/day) through them and had to pay $5 for a 2-hour prepaid card... ridiculous. If this happens again, this alone will be reason enough for me to not work in Abir anymore.
-food options are 99% sugar or pasta (although mostly they taste pretty damn good)
-how often have you had this conversation in there:
You: "I'll have the [fill in the name of basic staple cafe food here]."
Them: "Sorry, we're out of [basic staple cafe food]."
Often they're out of my second choice as well. C'mon, guys, you're plenty busy, no other restaurants around here seem to have trouble keeping basics foods stocked.
- The other thing that drives me nuts about Abir: the side door that doesn't close all the way after someone uses it, somehow causing arctic winds to blow through the place any time the temperature drops below 80 degrees out. It's like, it's a balmy summer evening, but with the wind chill the temperature at some tables inside Abir is in the mid-40s.
- Ambience: Sometimes I walk into Abir and feel like I'm walking onto the set of 'Friends' for some reason.

So, basically, if I want to zone out and work all day, I lean towards Abir, even though the internet isn't free (although if they don't restore the cheaper online signup, I'm outta there). If I want to eat, or eat and work, or drink good beer for super-cheep, it's the beanbag.

But, really, variety is the spice of life, I like having both of them in the neighborhood & would probably patronize both regardless of anything else. Until someone opens the Grové Café.