- At the beginning of the year,
I asked people if they like beans.
- I hate beans.
I'm on anti-bean TikTok.
- And I took that personally.
Thank you to our patrons
and to Incogni for sponsoring
a portion of this video.
Beans have so much potential
and it is so sad to think
that people think that this is
all a bean can be.
Do you see all of these varieties?
This is just the tip of the iceberg.
If you couldn't tell,
I've been really into beans
since the beginning of the year.
Naturally, I wanted to share
this excitement with other people
and I thought that they would have
the same response.
So I texted a whole bunch of people
to see if they like beans,
and they didn't get it.
It made me realize that there's people
who are really not into beans,
like my brother,
and then there's people who just don't care.
- "Are beans important to your life?"
Is a bad question. - It was a valid question.
- "How important" is such
a dumb way of phrasing this.
If beans were gone from my life,
I'd just eat something else.
- So to prove a point,
I am gonna open up a restaurant
that only serves beans.
Thank you for coming to the grand opening.
It will never be open again.
And hopefully, I'll convert some bean haters
into some bean believers.
I wasn't really sure where to start
when it came to developing a menu,
so I did a little research online.
Now, don't get me wrong,
I love reading books
but I think that this type
of research might actually benefit
from talking to real people
rather than looking in spreadsheets.
So I reached out to some
of my fav bean enthusiasts for recipes
to see if anyone would be down
to talk to me.
Then, one did.
- My name is Alicia Kennedy,
I'm a food writer based
in San Juan, Puerto Rico.
My forthcoming book is called "No Meat Required:
"The Cultural History and Culinary Future
"of Plant-Based Eating."
Beans are a huge source of protein,
they're also a great source of fiber as well,
which lots of people are deficient in.
They continue to be more important
as we see that meat has such
a detrimental impact on the environment,
so getting that plant protein is
just such a really easy switch
that people can make.
- Beans take 10 times less water than beef
to produce the same amount of food.
And beans aren't just kind to the environment,
they actively help it.
So beans carry this bacteria
that interacts with the air
and helps to create a natural fertilizer
in the soil.
Plus, beans can be stored
in a bunch of different ways
for different lengths of time, unofficially forever.
- Because of this,
that's why most cultures have
a really significant bean dish
that is central to their cuisine,
because they grow everywhere
and they grow well.
You can do anything with beans.
It can really take you
from appetizer to entree.
- So two things that I took away
from that interview:
One, beans are great crops for the environment;
Two, beans are really culturally significant.
You can find beans in so many places
across the world,
and in so many different forms and varieties.
But I also think that there's a third:
Beans are really versatile.
You can get so creative with them.
They're this blank canvas to do
whatever you want with them.
And while some people might think
of that as a weakness,
as beans being really bland and boring,
I think of that as actually a strength.
I actually see an opportunity
to do something really creative
and playful with beans.
So when I'm designing my menu,
I think I wanna highlight
these three features:
Sustainability, cultural significance, and creativity.
I spent the following weeks researching recipes
and buying beans.
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Protect your personal data
and your beans.
Mm, beans are so good.
So with a better sense of what
to serve at the restaurant,
the next item of business is to find
a place to have the restaurant.
So we're location scouting right now
for a potential restaurant.
I think all you need to open up
a restaurant is a table and chairs, right?
And the food.
- [Sabrina] Have you ever wanted
to open up a restaurant before?
- Absolutely not.
Why am I doing this?
Every book that I've read about
a person opening up a restaurant,
they tell you not to do it unless you must.
Do I need to do it?
- [Sabrina] Yes. - Oh my gosh,
this is like a chef's table.
This is where we'll prepare the dishes
and the people will eat over there.
Dimly lit, okay?
I know it's daytime right now.
We can shut off all the lights
and then just light it with can...
Oh, ooh.
- [Sabrina] Is this the only color that it can do?
- No, it can do whatever you want.
What do you wanna see? - Can we do yellow?
I just like...
Like a tungsten?
Little tungsten action.
- You can have any color in the world
and you turned to me and went "Tungsten."
"Any color you'd like."
"I dunno, lamp?"
- Lamp is a nice color.
Maybe I'm thinking too moody?
And then--
- [Sabrina] It's your restaurant!
- Well, right now,
I don't think of beans as being romantic,
but you know what?
Why not?
I make the rules.
I could do what I want.
- [Sabrina] Ooh.
- You see what I'm talking about?
- [Sabrina] That's lamp colored.
Great job!
- Do I have to serve 20 plates myself?
Do I need to hire servers?
- I'll email you my resume.
I think everyone should work
in the service industry at some point,
and this is my time.
- I think that we found our restaurant space.
I know right now, it doesn't look
like a restaurant space,
but the day of,
I think that we can turn this
into something really cute.
I think that our restaurant is being invaded right now
so I'm gonna leave,
but step one is done.
So I have gathered you here today
because we have officially secured
the location for Wednesday.
It is currently Sunday night.
This is about to get
a whole lot more stressful.
There was still a lot left to do,
and with the restaurant opening
in three days,
we still needed to get a menu,
find supplies, get guests,
and have it all ready for opening.
I don't know if I can pull this off
so I called the friend for some backup.
Hey Jordan, how are you? - [Jordan] Doing good, thanks.
How's it going? - I'm a little stressed
about this project that I'm working on,
so I thought that you'd be good to talk to
because you run a restaurant.
- [Jordan] Somebody has to cook for this?
- So here's the thing,
I'll be cooking.
- [Jordan] Oh okay, okay.
- Jordan, walked me through what it's like
to run a dinner service,
and I gathered three things.
One, have a simple, executable menu;
Two, prep ahead as much as possible;
And three, give yourself
at least two hours on site
before people show up
because that's when chaos begins.
Thank you so much.
All right, have a good day, Jordan.
- [Jordan] No worries, and enjoy your event.
Take care. - Take care, bye.
Now, there was still a lot left to do
but I was feeling a lot more confident
in my ability to pull this off
for tomorrow's open.
Inviting the guests,
ordering the supplies,
picking up the supplies.
Sometimes, I wish I lived in
a building with an elevator.
One, two.
And finalizing the menu.
And just like that,
it was the morning of opening night
and I finally figured out the menu.
And I guess it's a good thing
because people are arriving in 11 hours.
I should probably also explain
that this restaurant isn't gonna function
like your typical restaurant.
Normally, you would have a menu
and people get to choose
what they get to eat,
but not today.
Because I'm setting up
an educational experience,
everyone's getting the same thing.
It's gonna be three courses,
appetizer, entree, dessert,
all bean central.
I wanted each dish on the menu
to be able to highlight one aspect of the bean.
So for the first dish,
we're gonna be serving
a cold miso green bean salad.
So we've got fresh green beans,
fermented soybean paste, AKA miso,
and then I'm gonna top it off
with something crunchy to add some texture.
I wanted this dish to represent
the cultural significance of beans
'cause they're all over the world.
Now, for the entree,
I wanted to be able
to highlight affordability and sustainability,
so we're gonna be serving a bean bolognese,
a recipe inspired by my girl, Molly Baz.
Thank you.
Bolognese is usually ground beef sauce
but instead, we're gonna replace
the beef with beans.
Sneaky and a lot more sustainable.
I think it's gonna taste really good
and I hope people like it.
Now, for dessert,
I wasn't 100% sure if I was going
to actually do a dessert
or just make it through bean dishes,
but then last night
when I was scrolling on Pinterest,
came across this bean brownie recipe.
You're like, "What, bean brownies?
"Gross."
Well, these are gonna be gluten-free brownies
and gonna be masking the bean flavor
with coffee bean, vanilla bean,
and cocoa bean,
so it'll be like a quadruple bean situation.
Actually, not quadruple,
it'll be like a quintuple bean situation
because we'll have a red bean ice cream served with it.
We're gonna make everything today.
Hopefully, everything goes according to plan.
And if not,
we're ordering Uber Eats.
I'm currently putting the dishes away
so I can clean the kitchen 'cause...
Don't look at it.
- [Sabrina] This is her apartment.
- Eggs just make brownies,
but my sister is allergic to eggs.
But not deathly allergic.
- [Sabrina] Are you gonna poison your sister?
- I'm saying that she just gets a little bit
of a phlegmy throat when she eats eggs,
but she doesn't die.
I'll make two batches.
All right, we're gonna start
with all the fresh produce
'cause it's first thing here.
(upbeat music)
Do I have a pot big enough
to cook this kind of pasta, actually?
- [Sabrina] Oh my God.
- I think this is too big.
I think I have to do a long noodle.
It's 11:30, four and a half hours
'til we need to be on location.
The plan is to get to the location
at least two hours before the open
to set up and complete plating
for the first dish.
- I feel like a prepper.
- But before we do that,
we need to have all three courses prepped for service.
Pasta, brownie, the bean salad sauce.
We can do this.
We have our plan, let's get cooking.
Now, montage!
- [Sabrina] Montage! - All right.
- [Sabrina] That's dessert?
- Beans!
- Look at how chocolatey it looks.
So it is 2:00 PM,
I'm ordering some coffee right now.
One, because we need some caffeine,
and two, I think that these brownies need
some coffee to mask the bean
that is in there.
So I'm ordering four shots of espresso.
And you know what's great
about putting baking soda in this,
'cause the recipe didn't call for it,
it called for a baking powder,
the baking soda will work
because we're putting coffee in it now, boom!
- What does that mean? - Science.
- What does that mean?
Just because you're putting...
What? - It means science.
It means I'm a chemist,
working away in my lab.
Now, that there is acidity in this batter,
the baking soda will let it rise,
'cause baking powder doesn't need
any active ingredients to rise,
you can just add it to anything.
But baking soda needs acidity to activate,
coffee has acidity.
It's brownie time.
One coconut oil.
That is not what a brownie mix should look like.
I mean, maybe 'cause it's just beans
and egg right now.
Actually, Sabrina this doesn't smell that bad.
I'm gonna go for espresso.
Three, four.
No way!
Does this look like brownie batter to you?
- Say psych.
- I'm going to test a little bit in there.
I'm gonna microwave it. - Can I try?
You can't taste the bean.
You can feel the bean
in the current iteration.
The flavor is there enough
that I think that it's worth baking.
What happened?
- I may have forgot the chocolate.
What?
It was always in there.
I dunno what you're talking about.
First bag of pasta here.
Ah, don't touch the hot noodles.
- That's how you know she's not a chef.
- Brownies!
I feel like I'm a chef
at a fine dining restaurant.
It's five o'clock,
there's two hours until guests are arriving.
They're not on location yet.
It's not set up yet but it's fine,
we got an extra hand.
We were nowhere close
to having a finished restaurant set up.
Let's get this inside.
We packed everything up
and sprinted to the restaurant
in the location to start setting up
as fast as possible.
This is a ginormous elevator.
I forgot how big it was.
Okay, we're in.
There's about an hour and 12 minutes
until people are showing up.
Did we get out on the third floor?
- [Camera Operator] No, it's on the second floor.
- I told everyone it was the third floor.
We'll buy time,
it's fine. - [Camera Operatot] Yikes.
Six o'clock, this is the details
that you have to do.
- I still have four more to go.
- There was a lot of work to be done at this point
with people arriving in an hour.
I'm gonna get this mixing now.
Okay, we got ginger in here,
we're gonna do some soy sauce.
I'm gonna just go in
and see what feels good.
This tastes good.
- I'm glad.
- Where should we put it to?
Like here, on this X?
Oh my god. - Can you come over here?
I just want you to get a closeup
of my green beans.
I'm just mixing them all in this bowl
and they taste very good.
The other thing that we need to prep
for topping is the crunchy noodle salad.
Let me just make sure that they're edible.
I would love to eat that
with some green beans.
- She just wanted a reason to eat everything.
- I need to make sure things taste good.
- It's ramen dry noodles.
- How are things going over there, gang?
- We moved the tables.
Do you want three?
Three candles a table?
- As many as...
More.
The more, the merrier.
Eventually, the guests started to arrive
and we were almost ready
for the first course.
Almost.
It's seven o'clock
and we're not plated yet,
but it's okay.
- Is it?
- Okay, I need to clear this whole area.
- Can we get those colors warm?
Yellow?
Tungsten?
- Just gonna go a little bit at a time,
and go from there.
That's a little bit too little.
- Is this a normal amount of water?
That's not enough water for a human, right?
- [Camera Operator] That's a normal amount of wine.
- I was trying to be a good server
and now I'm just doing this.
- But I think guests started to take pity on us
and they started to help.
- May I make a small suggestion?
Just maybe, at the end,
give it a small flourish
and that helps it to not drip.
- Thank you for being here.
I had this crazy idea to open up
a pop-up restaurant that only serves beans,
and here it is.
Thank you for coming to the grand opening.
It will never be open again.
Sabrina is coming around with
our first course of the evening.
- I like beans on toast
and it has a bad wrap.
- Only comes to my mind when I hear "beans" is
those really bad...
The store-bought cans of beans
that, half the time,
you just eat them out of the can
and they're just okay.
- I honestly didn't even notice
if people liked the appetizer
'cause I was focusing on getting
the entree plated.
- It's an interesting choice to use sesame.
- It's delicious. - Delicious.
- I like the yellow ones.
- It's very good,
very well seasoned. - It has a good crunch to it.
- If you ask me,
that looks pretty freaking good.
Okay, everything is coming together,
this is good.
Sabrina's running around,
everything is going so well.
It's actually going well!
- It's actually going amazing!
- Oh, okay. - Right?
- I was thinking about doing a little...
- Oh, this looks kind of legit.
Hello, beans, bean lovers.
Sabrina is currently bringing
around course number two.
This is a bean pasta.
- The food is amazing.
It tastes great.
- Why, thank you.
- I had Chipotle today,
and I didn't have beans in it.
- No?
So you're not a bean convert yet?
- No.
- Maybe we'll at you with dessert.
- There's bean dessert?
- What the heck?
- [Camera Operator] What time is it?
- It's eight o'clock.
Things are going so well.
Everyone's eating food already.
'Cause I wanna do a puddle,
that's what I wanna do.
I wanna do like...
You rim the outside,
and then it'll start to go towards the center,
and we'll just place the brownie in there.
Just do a circle,
and then when you pull the thing in there,
then it spreads.
- Wow, you really were so specific
about how you wanted it plated
and this is it.
She was like, "No, I need to do it."
She's just...
- Is it a coffee dessert?
- [Guest] Chocolate.
- [Guest] I'm hearing coffee desserts.
- I was voting for jelly beans.
- All right, Sabrina is bringing around
our third course of the evening.
It is a chocolate espresso brownie
with red bean ice cream.
This is my version of a bean dessert.
Hope you enjoy.
- The brownie is not the very chewy.
- It reminds me more of a cake.
- I feel like I got a piece
of chocolate in mine.
It was so good.
- Hello?
I forgot to mention one thing about the dessert.
There's also black bean in the brownie.
If you can tell,
let me know.
- I can actually taste the beans in it.
- Can you?
I tried to mask it with espresso,
and vanilla, and chocolate.
- But I feel black beans just adds
to the chocolate flavor.
- How we doing with the dessert, y'all?
- It's really good.
The red bean ice cream is sweeter
than I expected it to be,
but that's a good thing
because I like sweet
- Good.
Can you tell that there's beans in it?
- I did taste some black beans
after you mentioned it.
- I tried to puree them.
- I had whole one in mine,
but I gaslit myself out of thinking it happened,
so it's fine. - There was no black bean,
what are you talking about?
Well, we did it.
We opened a restaurant
that only served beans
and people liked it.
I asked them.
I hope this video helps you see
how great beans can be
for the environment,
for cultural exploration,
and for just being really good.
Well, unless you're my brother.
- He picked out all of the beans.
(speaking over each other)
- This is crazy!
- [Melissa] This is such a fail.