New Play Cafe - Little Beans Cafe

Unless you're living under a rock, or an ice-encrusted record-sized drift of snow, you've probably heard about Little Beans Cafe. While I had been anxiously awaiting the opening and planning to visit last week, I seemed to be fighting fate to get there. After making it thru an 8-hour carpet installation, our first trip the ER (1am!) with our toddler, a week without our babysitter, 2 days on the phone with web tech support - and a little blizzard - I finally made it.

Little Beans does not feel like a kid's play place when you walk in the door. It's a sophisticated coffee shop, with a regular seating area in the front and a nice selection of drinks and snacks. At the back is the play area, which includes a kiddie town with a fire station, a burning house (it took some time to convince my daughter that the house "on fire" was not really on fire... and it's cute, not scary), a gas station and grocery store. My daughter (almost 3) was first drawn to the reading area, when she caught a glimpse of Knuffle Bunny, sitting amongst some other popular kids books.

In addition to the kid town and reading area, my daughter very much enjoyed sitting in a little wooden fire truck. Her friend that joined us was instantly drawn to a doll house before heading over to the play buildings. There's also a nice area for crawlers to play.

In addition to open play, Little Beans offers a variety of classes like Family Yoga, Mommy Time Yoga, Music & Movement and Imaginative Art.

Little Beans is located at 1809 W. Webster Ave. and has open play from 9am-5pm Monday - Friday; 9am-2pm Saturday; 9 to 11am Sunday. Visit them online at www.littlebeanscafe.com.