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I brought a salad from another restaurant into Coffee Bean to purchase tea to have with my salad. When I sat down I was told that my food was not Kosher and I could not eat it there and had to leave. I have gone to that coffee bean on my lunch break everyday for over three years and watched many other people bring in food, even bagels from a shop down the street, and I've never heard anyone be told this. I understand if they want to offer Kosher food, but I think it's inappropriate and a form of discrimination to say you can't eat at Coffee Bean unless the food you have is Kosher. I didn't go to a Synagogue to eat lunch, where if they asked me this I would be respectful of their wishes, I was at a Coffee Bean.
The complaint has been investigated and resolved to the customer’s satisfaction.
I just this morning asked for a sample coffee and the girl...I have met her before when the store opened a couple months after moving from their really ugly Manhattan Village store front to a lovely store next to a Manhattan Village restaurant ...that this girl had a scowl on her face toward me and sure enough gives me a drop at the bottom of the sample cup...so I told her to put more in to her surprise and a guy said that's all we give and I said it's not supposed to be a drop at the bottom of the cup and I know the CEO...the CEO is on LinkedIn and you can contact him there or get the corporate fax.
I think the policy is discrimination! Please not to go to the store!
I just run into this issue. I am embarrassed. I have been the store many times and never know the "Kosher" policy! When I was asked not to eat my lunch (I bought a cup of coffee from the store), there is another woman is eating food apparently not from Kosher. However, I am the only one asked not to eat in the store. The store address is 21300 Hawthorne Blvd, Torrance, CA. Store # 41. The waitress is a girl. I am not sure about her name. It happened at around 2:30 PM on July 13, 2017.
I just moved to LA and i went to coffee bean and tea leaf cafe in westwood. and there staff was so rude i couldn't listen what she told me she told me so fast and i cannot understand of course cuz i'm a foreigner and first time in US but she just shout to me. what a rude attitude. so rude, and bad manners
I am a regular customer at the Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf in Westwood Village, California #19 and just found out that my friends were asked to not come back to the store on grounds that they had an altercation with a customer named Amber and Mike. Apparently, Ret, the store manager informed my friends, James and John tonight, (8/30/2015) that they were talking about Amber and Mike in their conversation and got mad at this. James and John were talking about somebody completely different. This is a classic case of eveasdropping, and getting it all wrong. I know that Mike is at the coffee bean everyday for about 5-8 hours. The Twins (James and John) are at CB about 2-3 nights a week for about an hours' time. Mike and Amber are hot on the trail to bully my friends. Interesting to note that 5 months ago, when James at Corporate ruled in the Twins' favor, Mike and Amber were polite and courteous with the twins during these past 5 months. Just learned that James at Corporate in no longer with the CB as of 2 weeks ago...and now the bullying starts up again by Mike/Amber with the CB crew ie. Paul and Rich (their friends who give them free drinks all the time) backing them up. ---- The twins have been patronizing this particular CB location for the past 21 years and are Professional working people (CPA's). They are well known in the Village and are received very well by all the village merchants. Amber and Mike are struggling artists, have no car, and are down on their luck and jealous and allowing their own egos to get of control...and turn to bullying the Twins --- again now that James (CORPORATE) is no longer here. I find this outlandish and unacceptable. If anything Mike who spends a lot of hours in the CB (with Amber sometimes) needs to stop harassing the twins as he had done months ago.
You should not bring food that is not kosher into a kosher restaurant. This affects the status of kosher for that restaurant. Many people at coffee bean bring in food from other places. and they want to use the plates and tables for their outside food. However, they have allowed this for the longest time, so if you keep kosher, coffee bean is not the place to visit because between their employees and customers they break the kosher rules all the time. Look for Jeffrey Coedest on Facebook for pictures. This place had to change their dishes in summer 2011 for breaking kosher rules and then they refuse to change their dishes again in March 2012 when allthough they are officially kosher because they have the certificate, they are technically not. Their dishes and microwave are not currently kosher because even though I presented them with pictures of the violations they decided to save the money and look the other way. DON'T BELIEVE COFFEE BEAN WHEN THEY SAY THEY ARE KOSHER: THEY ARE NOT! So whomever you are complaining, you are in good company keep visiting Coffee Bean and bringing your food in there as they are not kosher anyways. That is the reason I stopped frequenting their store.
TAKUMI: COFFEE BEAN COULD CARE LESS ABOUT YOUR PASS OVER, OR YOUR RELIGIOUS WAYS. they are there to sell coffee, tea and food. there is not menu for pass over and kosher is not a religious word. kosher is another way of saying "safe". i mean people complain about food contamination ALLL THE FREAKING TIME. now you guys are saying they are TOO SAFE? COFFEE BEAN IS NOT MADE FOR JEWS, CHRISTIANS, CATHOLICS, MUSLIMS, ETC... so if you are doing lent, pass over, they you go GROCIERY SHOPPING. AND YOU DONT GO TO PLACES THAT SELL THINGS YOU CANT EAT. that simple. ITS AMERICA.
A.Dala: umm i dont think NOT eating another product in Coffee Bean Has anything to do with religion? i mean.. unless you worship coffee bean. but i doubt that.
first of all its not discrimination, unless you are a type of food. but your not you are a human being, so stop over reacting. coffee beans policy is not to bring other food in there especially when it smells like ###. i sat next to someone in coffee bean with their nasty butt smelling pizza and i left because it smelled so bad. plus if they do not follow their kosher poilicies, their district manager will see that and they will get in trouble for it. never take out the issues you have with a policy on an employee, because they are just doing their job. who wants to get fired over somthing stupid like not following kosher? so chill dude and just follow the rules.
Coffee bean & tea leaf greenhills is an awful place. First, they serve with cold raw sausage second they made me wait or the utensils. Im never going back to this place again. Considering their breakfast is 230 pesos its not worth every single peso that you spent cause the quality of food is poor and also the service of the employees. Rather go to a local coffee shop instead. My advice stay away from all coffee bean & tea leaf because they do poor in terms of service.
How can Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf call itself kosher when it has nothing for observant people to eat during Passover? Even non-Jews know that during Passover Jews do not eat bread, etc, yet CBATL serves doughnuts, bagels, sandwiches during Passover. This tells me that their "Kosher" label is nothing more than a marketing ploy, a way for them to charge over $4 for a little egg salad sandwich. They have no desire to truly keep kosher or they would get rid of the chometz during Passover as all kosher establishments do. What hypocrites!
Coffee Bean has chosen to be Kosher to be available to more people who follow those guide line. One of the requirements of being a Kosher establishment is that no OUTSIDE maybe consumed in the store. This particular shop handled it in an inappropriate way with your situation as it should apply to all customers and not just when a customer complains. Being Kosher doesn't just apply to people with religious guidelines, being a Kosher establishment also lets people know that the food and store are held to higher cleanliness standards which good for everyone. So by saying that you can't eat your salad there doesn't meet those standards, you should respect that before throwing the religious card down. By the way, there are signs next the doors at Coffee Beans that state the Kosher status and that outside cannot be consumed inside. Lastly I would hate to be enjoying my cup of coffee and have the person next to me smacking and crunching away at their salad. ITS NOT A CAFETERIA.
Also atheism is not to be without religion, just without a god. So the moral of this story is...do the research before you run your mouth.
To Ohbra:
How ironic, that you would call the Sormelly rude. You can diagree with someone without attacking them. I think that you are RUDE!
Establishments can set their own policies, but they should be consistant. My restaurants, such as coffee shops are okay with you bringing food in that they do not sell. If they have a problem with customers bringing in food from the outside, they should approach it directly, by indicating that food from sources other than theirs, cannot be comsumed in the establishment.
I too, have been a loyal customer of Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf for many years. There are three Starbucks near me, but I have enjoyed patronizing Coffee Bean for many years. I too brought a sald, which they do not sell into their shop. I also purchased my usual half-cafe coffe with soy, a carrott muffin, and a pound of coffee beans, that day. I was approached by one of the baristas, who informed me that a customer complined that I was eating a salad in a kosher coffee shop. I too was offended, not because I was asked not to bring food in, I am okay with that. It was because, there was nothing that indicated that i was patronizing a qausi-religious establishment. I am an ahteist, therefore I will never eat ther again.
I'm sorry, you brought food from another establishment into the shop? How rude! I'll bet you left your trash for the employees to clean up, too, didn't ya?
Bagels are kosher and greatly enjoyed by the Jewish community, so there wouldn't be a problem with those- just clearing that up first.
It's simply a matter of making sure other customers are not offended... the same thing would happen in other areas with a large amount of a single religion with restrictions (you wouldn't walk into a Muslim-populated coffee house with a ham sandwich and not expect them to ask you to leave). You have to think about this- is it worth offending a bunch of people and driving them away (effectively putting the place out of business) so you could have your non-kosher meal there at that time? I think not. If you're from a community that does not follow strict religious guidelines, it's a lot harder to understand.