Leaves 'n Beans Coffee

Honestly, a really excellent place to buy some coffee. Online available for ordering, nicest people to interact with and they make good coffee. They ask if you want dark or light roast - a real treat for sure. If you want to buy coffee from corporations, then go for it. This is a fantastic place and it should be your first choice if you can.

Review Date: May 22nd, 2021

These leaves and beans are sprouting up everywhere!

It’s always a pleasant surprise when a local business opens up a new location. With Leaves ‘n Beans, it wasn’t a huge surprise to see they opened yet another location, this time in Pekin. Personally, I have found Pekin to be lacking good coffeehouses so it was a pleasant surprise to see them get a Peoria-based legend. This location opened in April 2021 and I wasted no time in checking it out.

Maria and I popped in on a sunny and extremely hot Saturday afternoon. I was surprised to see the place empty. I figured with the weather finally playing nice, this place would be busy with kids getting sugary drinks, some end-of-semester college students cramming in for finals (unless they already took them), and people just out and about. Nope. Maria and I had the place to ourselves for the later part of the afternoon. There was the occasional person stopping in and their drive-thru had a few visitors.

The staff was super friendly in taking my order and they even brought my order out to me after telling me to pick it up at the end… I ended up wandering from the ‘pick up’ area to look at the art on the opposite wall while I waited. My drink of choice wasn’t a bitter black coffee like I’ve been ordering lately. With the weather being generally awful as of late, I needed something to perk me up and I picked the ‘Sugar Daddy’ to do just that. This is the first time I ordered this at a Leaves ‘n Beans and it was pretty good. I don’t remember what makes up the ‘Sugar Daddy’ besides it being a latte. Maybe it was caramel and… hazelnut? That sounds about right but don’t quote me on that. Either way, it was just the thing I needed on this sunny and hot afternoon. I also grabbed a chocolate chip cookie from their selection of baked goods. The cookie itself was decent. Nothing to write home about but it went well with my drink.

As is typical for me, they do offer a food menu but I wasn’t hungry enough to order something from it.

The interior of this Leaves ‘n Beans location was two things. Larger than I expected and nicer than I anticipated. As I walked in, I was impressed with the size of the ‘dining area’ and how it was laid out. There is plenty of space for people to sit without sitting too close to the next table. There was also this cozy little nook heading back towards the bathroom that would be perfect for a small group of friends to sit there for some privacy. On the wall between the register and the pick up area was a nicely crafted wood wall with Pekin in metal letters and the company logo above it. You can see it above and below. It is a very nice touch to the overall aesthetics of the coffeehouse.

Truth be told, the building its located in has seen better days and had some empty retail spots. I almost didn’t believe this was were the place was located because from the road, it looked nearly empty and abandoned but sure enough, there was coffee located on the right side of this little strip. I am not too familiar with Pekin but I do hope that this location brings in some foot traffic to the area and becomes a thriving strip of stores.

Pekin, do your best to support this place so you all have an actual place to get coffee that isn’t McDonald’s or maybe that one-off Starbucks.

After 27 minutes of waiting we were offered two different customers orders. They then were able to make the one drink we ordered in two minutes and the wife said it was good so I guess not a total waste. DO NOT tip until you get your order absolute garbage wait time

I’ve never experienced such terrible management from a small business. The current management (and “lead barista”) at the Pekin location are immature and act more like high school students than the actual high school students that work there. I will never go to any location now due to how the managers, the regional manager, and even the owner, treat their employees. It’s very disappointing to see a small business that will eventually fall to its demise because of this. Also, the manager knew there was a mouse (that they named) in the shop and did nothing about it.

Nice place to go for the same kind of foofoo coffee as starbucks.
Lots less cars in the drive thru holding up traffic!
I go at least 1 or 2 times a month.

My mother and I always go and order our drinks. They know just the way my mother likes it. The staff is very nice and patience with us.

Their food and coffee is always 👌 perfect. Staff is generally very pleasant. I know they haven't been opened very long but just want to give some tips... communication is very important between you and your fellow staff and also your customers, and just remember to keep smiling 😃. That always helps people want to come back. I would love to see this business stick around! Keep up the good work everyone!👏

Love this place! Makes you feel so welcome! Food very good and blueberry muffin really good!! Wish they had pepsi!

I love trying new coffee from other places and the coffee I got from here was amazing! Friendly staff. Forgot their names but they were very generous and guiding. I will be sure to grab a coffee from here when I get the chance!

Came back to try this place today after it reopened on the weekends again. I'm not sure what is going on at this place. We arrived and ordered at 9:15am. We also wanted to use a coupon that had been sent to us as a "come back and try us special". The girl working the register couldn't find the spot to enter the code and neither could the other person behind the counter. Instead of waiting we just told her to forget about it and we'd use it another day. We had an iced Americano, two cold brews, two sandwiches and a veggie quesadilla. We sat with our party and waited for our order. Our party started to get their drinks about 20m after their order and then the food was a good 30-40m after they ordered. In total we waited an hour for our coffee and food. One of the drinks on the ticket did not arrive and when I went to the counter they had no idea that we were waiting on another drink and the ticket must have been "tossed".

I must say I don't quite understand what would take an hour with our order. Even one of the girls behind the counter who came in for a shift mentioned the long wait time. The food was okay, and hot. Drinks were tasty, but waiting an hour for coffee and a breakfast sandwich just makes no logical sense. I think the staff needs to be trained to work ahead/on multiple tickets at once. Definitely seems like every time I've been here they are working on one drink on one ticket at a time. I wanted to like this place as it is a local business but the service quality is really sub par and it doesn't seem like the extended training did much to cause the store to run more efficiently.