Busy Bean Cafe & Play Place

It was a fun place. The Lattes were most wonderful. Very hard to find that.
No music, very odd.
Independents are always my preferred go to places

Busy Bean is a little independent café and play place. It is right in downtown Leduc and is where Play’d Out Café used to be. Like Play’d Out Busy Bean Café is a spot where you can come and have a coffee (or another drink) and grab a bite to eat, and it also has a kids play area (for kids 6 and under). Before they opened Busy Bean did some remodelling from the previous café, and now the kids area is in a completely different room, that closed off from the rest of the café. So when you enter (on the entrance on 50 Street) you can go into the play area (if you have kids) or into the café. The play area, from what I could tell (I didn’t go inside, but there windows from the café side that show the play area) has some tables and chairs for parents to sit and enjoy their coffee. On their Facebook page they mention that it’s $ 5 for kids 1 – 5 years to be in the play area. I don’t have kids, but I’m sure for many parents this is a nice option to be able to go out and have a coffee, and have something for your kids to do.
Being that the play place portion of the café is separated from the rest of the café I found it wasn’t as loud as I’d expected. Of course kids are kids, and so it could get a little louder. Busy Bean might not be the kind of place I’d go to if I need to get a lot of work done (they do have free wIfi through Shaw), but it does seem like a great place to go to to visit with friends.
The café side of Busy Bean is very nice. It’s quite long and the counter is near the back, but if you enter in from the side door it will be closer. There are several tables and chairs, and some comfy brown couches to sit at. I saw a shelf with some books, magazines, and a few board games.
I wanted to have a salad for lunch so I got there apple, cranberry, and walnut salad (special of the day). There was a line up of people in front of me, so it took some time to order. There were only 4 people working (that I could see), one girl at the register, two taking making drinks and taking out orders to people (there were about 15 people in the café), and one person working in the kitchen (there may have been more in the kitchen). It took about 10 minutes for my salad to come out. There were other orders ahead of me, but I didn’t expect it to take that quite long. Busy Bean has just opened, so hopefully with time they’ll be able to get their orders out a little quicker (especially things like a salad that don’t require any cooking).
My salad was quite good, it had spinach, walnuts, cranberries, feta cheese, and a balsamic dressing. The salad was supposed to have apples, but mine didn’t, so I’m not sure if they were out or just forgot to put them on. I will say there were lots of walnut and cranberry pieces, not just two or three sprinkled on top. The salad was also a good size, not too big, and a decent price about $ 4.50. The rest of the menu looked really good. They have breakfast items (like pancakes and sausage) and lunch fare (sandwiches, soups, etc.).
I think there are a few kinks that Busy Bean needs to work out, but I like where they’re going and I’ll definitely be back.