Dongzhimen's Berry Beans May Just Be One of Beijing's Wackiest Cafés
From the moment you arrive at Berry Beans café’s Dongzhimen location, you’ll be tempted to all but bellow like Tarzan and seek out a vine to swing on. The café’s nookish platforms and abundance of greenery evoke an urban forest or mountain village straight out of a fantasy novel. That this hastily decorated café (which also has a more subdued Qianmen sister location) is hidden on the third floor of a dingy building on a sleepy Donghizmen side street better known for the hot pot chain on the ground floor, makes Berry Beans all the more charming.
Blink and you may miss it, which is not to say that the café is small. In fact, it amounts to three whole floors in the cavernous, hanger-like third floor of the Beehive Theatre. Heading upstairs, you’ll be struck (figuratively) by the giant imitation USB ports lodged in the stairwell’s walls (literally), each of which has fake cracks spreading out to underscore their impact and giving an idea of the type of quirky decoration you're in for.
Round the corner and you'll find two smaller platforms, one housing the coffee machine and ordering counter and another where patrons invited to sit at either a pleather bench along the wall, at low tables, or at an island counter with stools in the middle. All the while, avant-grade photos, coffee siphon machines, and jars of beans line the walls.
A number of unique menu options rival the creativity of the decor. We’d never tried anything like their RMB 68 hive honey iced coffee, for instance, a drink that evokes the honeycomb-shaped light fixtures above this wacky café. It’s a gently sweet summer drink with enough caffeine to leave you buzzing like a bee.
Aside from fairly standard Ethiopian and Costa Rican specialty coffees, the menu also features more offbeat imports like Panama Esmeralda Diamond Mountain (RMB 55 per glass), with rich, dark, and nutty notes. Then there's the even more memorable El Salvadoran (also RMB 55), a mildly bitter sip with a smooth, creamy, and chocolatey finish. Those hot imported coffees arrive in beakers with a leather wrap to keep your hands cool, a fun coffee twist on the standard beer koozie.
There are also a few cakes, of which we'd recommend the RMB 38 whiskey vanilla flavored napoleon cake for its sweet cream and crunchy, crumbly wafers. Other sweets on offer include a raspberry tart (RMB 48) and an Earl Grey mousse (RMB 38).
Though it's off the beaten path, Berry Beans' quality coffee and zany ambiance make it worth seeking out for your next caffeine fix.
Berry Beans (Dongzhimen)
Daily, 11.30am-8pm. 3/F, Beehive Theater, A3 Dongzhimenwai. Dongcheng District (150 1090 3475)
东城区东直门外大街蜂巢剧场内三层
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Photos: Kyle Mullin