Caffe Beano is 17th Ave's most hip coffee shop. This place is character central, from hippies to hipsters to shirtless daydreamers. The crowd is laid back so security is not an issue. But I wouldn't study or work here because it always seemed to be busy.
The coffee is great, their sugar/cream station has real brown sugar in a jar, I would always prefer not to use sugar packets, not because I'm environmentally friendly, but because my lazy fat thumbs don't want to go through all the trouble of tearing those pesky things up. They have a consistently delicious meatloaf sandwich that I always order, it's served with tomato, hot mustard, and what I believe is a unique ingredient- bread.
The people behind the counter were always friendly and prompt.