Outstanding weekend brunch cafe. The weekend menu is different than the weekday menu. Quiche, breakfast sandwich on bagel and breakfast burrito with spicy chorizo were all top notch. The design of the cafe is ideal almost to the point of parody: rough hewn wood tables, slate menus, ivy covered walls... The bus your own tables/pick up your own drinks policy only adds to the ethos of a hidden gem of a cafe like this. In a city of corporate coffee places, or tiny too crowded cafes, the large interior and huge outdoor patio in the sun create a European communal feel. Even at the height of Sunday brunch with a line out the door, a large order was filled quickly. This cafe sets the standard for Washington brunch cafes. read more

Really want to like Big Bear and it brings me no joy to give this local spot a poor review. But I will anyway in hopes that some good comes from it. The food is solidly decent. Good enough that I'm not turned off by the two flies buzzing around the bar while I pick through it. But bad enough that I'm eating it for the... not sure why. The service is terrible. It's the system, and partially the people. I've waited in lines at small airports which have moved faster. Tried to order a drink at the bar. Was told wait in the line. Waited in the line for 15 mins. Was told they were out of tonic. What a bummer. There's a guy playing banjo behind me which is kinda cool I guess. Meh. Happy Sunday. read more

Not only does big bear have great coffee and sandwiches, but one of its patrons was also the inspiration for this blog, which is also kind of great: http://dumbcoffeeshopideas.wordpress.com read more

I waited 45 minutes for a bagel. A BAGEL. And even after 45 minutes the bagel had lettuce on it when it was supposed to have apple butter. The staff was friendly. read more

Not what it used to be, sadly. Waited almost ten minutes just to order, because they only had one menu printed. Lady at the register didn't know how to use the order system, so it was taking even longer. End up leaving to go somewhere else arrive the corner. read more

Ordered a hot chocolate but got a tepid warm milk, cups and lids are ill fitting. Chai had no spice. Staff looks sloppy. The 2 stars are the decor. read more

one star is pretty edgy - but this place drives me crazy! it's all the worst impulses of gentrification, channeled in to one shop. mr. bear, first, i do not want to listen to norwegian industrial screech punk. i really don't think anyone else does, either. even the people who do make it in to the shop use headphones. second, i would love to have my coffee without feeling so JUDGED! your snobbery is not noble, it is not progressive, and it's not productive. all i wanted was some sugar! third, why is your food so expensive? you can put lipstick on a pig, but that sandwich was still small and stale. it is just not that good, mama bear, not even close to the sandwich quality of your closest competitor (windows at 1st & rhode island). but it's so expensive! i just don't think the tomato slice in that sandwich cost you $3, or even $.30. all of this creates a pathos where those not wearing tight jeans, blogging on their laptops and fluent in your even-snootier-than-normal coffee lingo are made to feel left-out. mama bear, where is the love? bear cubs, go to windows (101 Rhode Island) or, god forbid, starbucks (georgia & bryant). read more

So I live about half a block from Big Bear, so i want to love it. I really do. Forget the bridge and tunnel fake hipsters that congregate on the weekends for a moment, Big Bear has so much potential to be the best neighborhood coffee spot in DC. Except that everytime I go it is a chaotic mess. Yesterday for example. Its about 8:30 am on a sunday, pre-brunch crowd for sure. Not too many people in the shop, and only 1 person ordering in front of me in line! yay, ill be in and out in no time (i was rushing to work and wanted a coffee and bagel to go.) But still it took 15 minutes for me to order and get my (untoasted) bagel. WHATTT!?!? i know its not starbucks where efficiency is the goal, but cmon, if it takes the cashier 10 minutes to ring up 1 order (while meanwhile the line has built to 7 deep), add someone to help her? Sorry Big Bear, but you can and should do so much better! read more

Watched flies have a field day on the food on the counter (I think it was pasteries that had been there all day...) while the staff did nothing. Waited (like everyone else) too long for very under-whelming food. Everyone goes here to be "cool", but the food is sick (and might make you sick with the freakin' flies!) the tables dirty, the waitstaff un-friendly (maybe they're trying to be more hipster by making fun of you and ignoring you?) and I generally only hear other hipster people or people from that neighborhood say they go there. I guess hipsters don't have taste buds. read more

I live a couple blocks away so you'd think I would go here all the time. I actually avoid this place. The staff have managed to somehow screw up my order probably four of the five times I've visited. Most of them are total space cases. If something does go wrong, they lack the awareness or willingness to make it right. I don't even have complicated orders. It's not that hard. read more

I'll give them 2 stars because I like their ambience and I hope they succeed in that neighborhood. I think their presence is good for the community. But let's talk about the coffee... 1. You only have 2 choices for milk. Whole or soy. I don't like whole milk because its too heavy, esp if you have a milk based drink (like a latte). And not really a fan of soy, but I'll take it over whole. So I asked them to make me a soy latte. It was absolutely foul. I gave them the benefit of the doubt because I figured - my mistake for ordering soy. So next time I went in I got a cappucino - more coffee, less milk. I let them make it with whole. Nasty!! It's not the milk - its the espresso. It tastes like a cross between coffee and old Round Table pizza. 2. Pull your pants up or pull your shirt down. The name of the cafe is Big Bear Cafe not Coffee and Plumber's Ass. 3. How long can it possibly take to make a breakfast sandwich? I've worked in a cafe...I've made breakfast sandwiches...Every morning for YEARS. It take 5 minutes tops. I will give you 2 more minutes if it is crowded. But the couple times I have been there, we were the only customers ordering and I swear they were plucking the chickens back there. 4. I get it. You're a hipster. I understand this as I'm originally from San Francisco. But I don't need the attitude when you are taking my money, making shitty coffee, making me wait 20 minutes for my breakfast sandwich while I look at your asscrack. I would go there for the free wi-fi though. I'd just get a pastry and a canned drink. read more

I am a Yelp taker. I read it often, but very, very rarely post. So the fact that I disliked my experience at Big Bear Cafe enough to post about it should say something. Where to start: 1. Jesus is it loud. I dig Mariah Carey's greatest hits as much as the next guy, but combine that blasting with the requisite screaming on top of it, and your head starts spinning (I'm 27 for what it's worth, so I'm used to loud places). 2. the service was rude. I asked if I could swap out the chorizo in an omlette for pretty much anything (avocado? turkey bacon? veggies?). The cashier flatly said "no, you can get it without chorizo." Thanks for being so accommodating. 3. my coffee was downright bad. i ordered an americano, which oddly came in a regular coffee mug and was very, very watery. it tasted more like a weak coffee than an americano. 4. they messed up my girlfriend's order by not including cheese in her omlette. 5. they crammed way too many tables in. one can't help but feel cramped and in the way. 6. it's expensive. $9 for a small egg breakfast dish. we left to go to blind dog cafe in shaw. the coffee and atmosphere were about 100 times better. read more

I've been to Big Bear a couple of times, and never been really impressed. Let me explain today's excursion. My order was interrupted when a customer, who'd apparently been waiting awhile for a sandwich, got the attention of the woman helping me. No big deal--the person deserves their food within a reasonable amount of time. I ordered an iced coffee "for here," and had to further ask her to put it in a real glass instead of a to-go cup. Any serious coffee shop and any place that gives a damn about the environment should automatically be able to handle this. Then the same woman taking my order only gave me a dollar bill back for change, when I was also supposed to receive some coins. She apologized when I said I hadn't received all my change, and then she reimbursed me with the full amount of change again (the dollar bill as well as the coins I was missing). At that point I just didn't want to make the situation any more confusing, so I just kept the incorrect change in addition to the other dollar. The music in Big Bear is fine, but it the abrupt changes in both song (cutting songs halfway through) and volume was a bit annoying to me and others around me. The gentleman next to me also had to get up to fetch the bakery item that they forgot to give to him, and the guy across from me was complaining about his poorly pulled espresso, calling it "bitter." I really want to like Big Bear--it seems like there's so much potential in the place... read more

So we moved into the neighborhood a few months ago and had been meaning to try this place, and finally attempted to yesterday. Checked the website to see when they served breakfast/brunch/lunch. Was surprised to see that they didn't do a "brunch" on the weekends, but figured we would get there on the later end of the breakfast time. Now, the website clearly states that their Sunday hours are: Breakfast - 7:30am to 1pm Lunch - 1pm to 3:45pm Happy Hour - 4pm to 6pm (kitchen closes at 5pm) (I copied and pasted that from the website). We arrived at 12:45pm, and looked up at the chalk board, which stated that breakfast ends at 12:50pm. Okay, different than the website, but we made it in time. There was no line at the counter, and there even seemed to be a few available tables. Things were looking good, right? Wrong. So I made a casual reference to the guy at the register that we were glad we made it just in time to order breakfast. He promptly responded that we had not, and that they called "last call" for breakfast 5 minutes ago. Okay, that's weird, given what the website and the chalkboard say. So we proceeded to attempt to order lunch. That's when things got really weird. According to the register guy, lunch doesn't begin until 1:00 p.m., and he can't take any lunch orders until then. I asked what they do serve for the next 15 minutes, and he said they can make coffee. I asked him "so we're basically supposed to stand at the counter for the next fifteen minutes?" He just shrugged. So yeah, we left. That's just not okay. I get that you have a small kitchen, and you need to change over certain things. But at 12:45pm on a Sunday? When nearly every other establishment manages to keep some kind of brunch menu operating until 2-3pm on weekends? This entire experience would have been different if: -the website accurately stated their (totally crazy) "hours"; -the "chalkboard" accurately stated their (totally crazy) "hours" and their 15-minute siesta policy; and -their staff was trained to take orders from people, advise them that the time might be a little bit longer because of the kitchen transition, but that we are welcome to grab a seat while we wait for our food. Won't be back any time soon. Happy ending: wound up exploring a little more of Bloomingdale and found a really great, friendly bar/restaurant a few blocks up that served us some great brunch food and killer bloody mary's, without the attitude. For fear of being accused of being a shill for another business, I won't name names, but it was a classic example of happy little accidents happening that turn a bad experience into an unexpectedly great discovery. Also, bonus lame points to Big Bear for being too cool to have a telephone number listed on their website, and even too cool to actually answer a telephone call from those calling to ask a simple question (such as, are pets welcome to accompany diners in the outside areas?) And for all the fuss, i was surprised that the place had no table service. You basically order at a counter and get a number and they shout out your number when it's ready. Ironically, as we walked to Big Bear, with all our happy little expectations, we looked across the street to the park and wondered, "what was with the big ol' banner set up directly in view of the al fresco diners saying 'THE NEIGHBORHOOD NEEDS ANOTHER COFFEE SHOP'"? We found out pretty quick, I guess. read more

the sun was shining and it was warm, without being oppressive, when i came inside, and they were all sitting there, with their screens hypnotizing them in their seats, all right next to each other, silent in mouth, but rabid in typing, and i could tell that they were thinking (or hoping), as i ordered my green tea and turkey apple brie sandwich (that doesn't make me any less of a man) of things passionate. i took my cup and cast iron tetsubin from the girl who wispered emma goldman from her glance. leon trotsky was lost in the corner. some where in the ceiling mikhail bakunin slept. 100% green powered, the sign said, and hiding behind the rickety, tiny old tables and chairs, leon czolgosz waited to pounce. i sat and drank my green tea in a garden of lap tops. men in suits came in to buy coffee from the la boheme girls behind the counter, as did bike messengers, girls in dance class tights, boys in chinos, ethopian women in dresses, and older men in jeans (each according to their own suit) while the baristas played old pop music from itlay, india, and spain, or until they were bored and then played the vaselines. what happens to a dream deferred? what happens to a dream asleep? i finished reading my paper, felt the sun upon my face, took the last drop of tea, and exited the cafe of flip top screens wondering which suit i was wearing. read more

My experience here was miserable. I got the roasted pepper spread and my friend got the pasta dish. They both tasted like someone had googled the recipes and was trying to make them for the first time, but had never heard of salt. The service was incredibly slow, and when a fly flew into my beer, which was about half full, they charged me for the replacement beer that took 15 minutes to arrive. I was so annoyed that I was paying so much for bad food and bad service. I was genuinely happy to leave. I will definitely not be back and I will definitely roll my eyes when someone asks me about this place. read more

Today, I ordered a hamburger with potato fries. Before I ate the meal, I noticed that the bun and fries were semi cold. In addition, the fried egg were half way cooked. At the end, I threw half of the meal in the garbage. Two hrs later, I had diarrhea. So disappointed! read more

Service was just too slow for me to give this place any kind of decent review. Over an hour wait for a breakfast burrito.

I don't write too many reviews, but the cashier was not too helpful so...reviewing now. Arrived on a busy Sunday around noon, and my girlfriend put in an order for 2 breakfast items and coffee. Mid-order, the cashier started chatting with some dude for a minute and looked back at us waiting for the rest of the sentence. I generally don't mind interruptions if they do not interfere with quality of service/product. But the problem was that she had entered the wrong order in, overcharged us with an extra vanilla latte, and then insisted that we ordered a vanilla latte. I then leaned my head over the counter and clearly enunciated "Coffee. Black. Not Vanilla latte". She then revised the order and took off the extra charge. Bottom Line: If you're at the cash register, pay attention to the person placing the order. read more

This place is my dirty little secret... I cheat on my local coffee shops in Columbia Heights with Big Bear. I can't help myself... Big Bear is spacious, and parking in Bloomingdale is a piece of cake. And then there's the delicious mocha with its seductive swirls on top... a strong contender for best in DC. Turkey apple brie panino and grilled cheese are solid. Aside from the sometimes jarring soundtrack, this is a good place to camp out with the laptop and get work done. read more

Awful place to do work. Forget the free wifi. Sour coffee, pretentious staff. Pretty grape vines outside. read more

Ok, ok...for the benefit of my neighborhood, I've been trying to prop up Big Bear for years, but I can't do it any more. They should change their name to the "Dirty, Slow and Rude Bear." I recently found a hair in my food. And that was just after I was treated rudely by the cashier (which happens about 70% of the time). Oh, and I waited 15 minutes for a cold sandwich at 11am on a weekday. I never thought I'd say this, but I'd rather go to Starbucks; until we get one of those in Bloomingdale, I'll stick to making coffee at home. read more

The bread they use for the egg sandwhiches is amazing (not the bagels aha), the mid/light roast coffee is a little sour for my taste but the espresso is a rich medium with a great flavor. Atmosphere is the selling point: the staff are relaxed and friendly and the vibe is like Free People meets urban coffee roasters read more

Keep walking up the street. A few blocks or so. Blind Dog Cafe...Avoid this place if possible. Coffee is decent but not worth the hassle or service. Everything else...No. Do yourself a favor and keep doing. Never have I felt so disrespected at an establishment before. read more

It amazes me how this establishment can remain open in spite of its extreme inefficiency. I just spent nearly 30 minutes there getting a breakfast sandwich and there were only three people in front of me. Unfortunately, this level of service tends to be par for the Big Bear course in the three years I've been in the neighborhood. Management really needs to get a clue as Big Bear is likely going to be tumbleweeds as more options open in the area. read more

I'll start by saying that most of the things I traditionally care about when going to a restaurant were fine - the coffee was good, the food was good, the atmosphere is nice. The two-star review is due to a unique, but quite negative experience I had with the management and staff. I was at the café for a couple hours between meetings in DC (I don't live in DC; I had just taken the train in for the day). I'm a working (new) mom, and since I'm still breastfeeding, I need to pump. I figured I'd just pump in the bathroom before leaving (not ideal, but I have to do it somewhere). Then I realized the café only has one restroom, and I didn't want to tie that up for 20 minutes while I pumped. I was planning to just leave the café and find another place, but then I noticed that they had a small storeroom. I asked one of the people working behind the counter if it would be ok to use that room for 20 minutes to pump - I even said that I totally understood if the answer was no. She said it would be fine, which I appreciated. Then, as I was assembling and putting on the pump, another (male) employee walked in - I guess she hadn't told him. A little uncomfortable, but mistakes happen. Then, five minutes later, as I was pumping, another man knocked briefly, and then came in. I'm guessing that he was the owner. He saw that I was actively pumping, but said that there was a better room I could use downstairs. Since I was already in the process of pumping, I said I'd prefer to just stay there to finish. He asked me how much longer I would be. I said five or ten minutes. "Ok, five minutes," he responded. Within those five minutes, the originally worker came in again to put something away (why he couldn't wait five minutes, I don't know). Then, after five minutes exactly, as I was packing things up (even though I hadn't really had time to finish), the owner knocked briefly and walked in on me again, hurrying me to leave. Feeling both flustered and frustrated, I explained that I would have been happy to go somewhere else, but I had asked an employee, and they said it was ok to use this room to pump. He seemed to not realize that I had asked someone before using the storeroom, but just continued to stand there and repeated this wasn't a good room to use, because it has private employee belongings in it. I finished packing up and left. I realize that this is a pretty unique experience - no one else may ever have this issue at this café again. But I feel that this reflects on the performance of the staff and manager in general - they clearly weren't communicating, and made being a working, breastfeeding mother (already a difficult situation!) more difficult, embarrassing, and uncomfortable. It would have been fine with me if they had said I couldn't use the storage room - I would have completely understood and just gone somewhere else. But once one employee said it was ok, it's really out of line to have two - male - workers each walk in on me twice, making me feel uncomfortable and hurrying me to leave. read more

God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, like how SLOW and inefficient Big Bear Cafe is. For starters, they have this asinine rule that after 12 on weekends you can't order a bagel or bagel sandwich. HUH?! I can't roll out of bed or off my couch after watching Melissa Harris Perry to get a dat gum bagel?! Instead, you have to wait in line for at minimum, 15 minutes only to get to the register and have someone tell you that in the time you were waiting in line "breakfast ended" and now they are only serving brunch. Oh, if you only came for coffee, save yourself and just walk to Dunkin' Donuts and save yourself 20 minutes, $2.50 and your sanity. I'm granting the extra star for proximity to my front door and because they're pretty nice there, just S......L....oooooooOooW. Jeez! read more

Had the trout, which was unremarkable. The tartar sauce with it was good, made the trout palatable. Service was terribly slow, watched my food sit on the counter for 7 minutes with no less than three people looking at it before somebody decided they should give it to the paying customer. Save your money and effort, portions sizes were fairly small too. read more

Having lived in the coffee mecca of Seattle, I feel that Big Bear is the first cafe to have that true pacific northwest coffee shop atmosphere. Big Bear attracts all the local scenesters as well as neighborhood locals looking for a good cup of coffee. Today, people were coming in droves, probably due to the blistering cold weather. The crowd was also diverse as usual. Big Bear is my new favorite place for coffee on Saturday, when I am in the neighborhood for my aerobics classes. I actually love this part of town. This is an up and coming neighborhood, and it is relatively close to U Street, Florida Ave., and the 9th Street sprawl. The inside is small; comprised of a bar front, small tables and chairs, and even some plush chairs for relaxing and reading. When the weather allows, there are a number of tables and chairs outside to extend the availability of seating. The inside has lovely exposed brick walls with warm colors, and there are lots of windows to keep the place bright and airy (and allow for neighborhood people watching). I should also mention that the music is always really good and varies from visit to visit. Today they were playing reggae, for instance. I find that the coffee is really good here, and usually get lattes. They do offer a small selection of salads and sandwiches (think Turkey with apple and brie), including breakfast sandwiches. They also have some bagels and pastries in the morning, and offer things like salmon locks and yogurt with granola. It would be nice to see them expand their offering as far as the food is concerned, but the kitchen appears to be rather small. I notice that they seem to run out of their bagels and pastries at times. I have tried the egg and cheese sandwich and it was really quite good. They do have a farmers market here out front from May until November, but it is unfortunately about to come to an end this weekend, as we are heading into winter. I love finding new cafes, and an alternative to tryst, so I was very happy to find this little gem. If you are in the neighborhood, and in need of a little caffeine, find your way to Big Bear Cafe. read more

Who doesn't have a love/hate relationship with hipsters? Hipsters--look at them with their skinny jeans, pretentious glasses, and "irony. Sure, it's true, but they do have an eye for what's trendy and brew a mean cup of coffee. Big Bear--good coffee, good people watching. read more

Have always loved the ambiance in this place. I do however have to express a concern about the quality of food presentation/preparation. I ordered a lox bagel. It didn't look appetizing...haphazardly made. Very little pickled red onions and no capers were first effort. Second effort after asking, I got the same amount of onions and a small amount of capers. I hate to admit I may not want to come anymore. I love the concept just not crazy about the outcome. :-/ read more

Finally, a real coffee shop in this part of town! What was once a disgusting corner liquor store with the standard plexiglass booth is now a great little cafe with some great coffee! The interior is simple and a little bohemian. The coffee is great, and so are the pastries. They are slowly adding more food options. There is internet available, and seating at small tables, one large communal table, and a couch/chair/coffee table. There is also some outdoor seating available. On Sundays, Big Bear sponsors a farmer's market on the street just outside, another great addition to the neighborhood. It makes the cafe extremely busy on Sundays, so it can be hard to find a place to sit, but I would rather have that "problem" than not having either the market or the cafe. I hope the opening of this great place will show other business owners of the potential in this neighborhood. read more

This cafe has HORRIBLE service. I attempted to try them out as I live up the street. They were not busy at all as it was a weekday. There was no one in front of me when I arrived and the staff proceeded to help others that came in after me. When I attempted to get service the staff was rude so I left. I will never patron this place again. read more

As a restaurant professional who goes out to enjoy good food and good service I ended up leaving in tears. I have had cafeteria food and service in public schools that is of better quality. Another patron picked up my food and put it on his table and then he apologized for his mistake. The staff did not notice/care. I then retrieved my food and it was inedible. I NEVER RETURN FOOD! But I had no chance. Truly inedible. I returned my food and after apologizing for returning the food I was given food that was even worse. I left it in the bus pan on the way out. I enjoyed the coffee. read more

the cutest little cafe walking distance from my house. we went yesterday and had the fried chicken sandwich and came back today for the breakfast burrito and a chai tea with oat milk. i highly recommend. the staff is super friendly too :) read more

Big Bear Cafe - Cafes Near Me - Washington, DC, District of Columbia

The Bloomingdale neighborhood in Washington DC is one of my favorite spots in the city. It is very quiet, it has very little traffic, and is close enough to everything else in the city. The drawback is that there are very few restaurants and bars located here but if there is one particular café that makes it well-known, it has to be the Big Bear Café - a small establishment located in the intersection of First St., R St., and Florida Ave. The coffee and other specialty drinks are all outstanding. You see, I am not one of those people who hangs out at cafes (you know just for the sake of hanging out at a café) but I absolutely love a great cup of coffee on a mid-morning Saturday or Sunday. If you are like me and get annoyed by a place overrun by "hipsters", you will definitely not want to go anywhere near this place, but if you can bear it with a grin, you will definitely get a very good cup of to-go coffee. And I emphasize (to-go). The good news is that this can be a very excellent place to have an informal get-together with friends for drinks - especially during the warm months of the year where they have a gorgeous patio outside surrounded by lush herb gardens. You will find that it will be very difficult to come by this experience any other place in DC. They also have this very excellent diner special each night - I once randomly stopped by and saw they had this braised beef short-rib entrée on special that evening - I was surprise so I had to try it. It was nice and I was also pleasantly surprising by the small yet smart drink menu. I will continue to stop by. read more

The location and ambiance are great, but when your pretentious practices affect the quality of your service, that's a problem.

Walked into this place for the first time... nice place, spacious and comfortable, but after waiting in line for 15 minutes or something, I think I was mistaken for someone's despised ex-boyfriend or something.... took literally about 30 minutes to make a simple, no-requests latte. I didn't even wander off--just stood there looking hungover and dying for caffeine. Terrible experience. Not going back. read more

WOW! Dined for the first time at this wonderful restaurant. The food was outstanding. We had a cheese plate as well at the chicken leg with collard greens and black eyed peas and the hanger steak with rosemary mashed potatoes and a lovely green salad. Excellent - in both cases. Small, intimate, bustling, lots of good conversations going on and a healthy number of people arriving to eat, drink, sit at computers. What a nice neighborhood joint. I plan to be back there often. The menu and the performance of the kitchen more than justifies the loyalty of repeat customers. read more

I went to The Big Bear Cafe and it was great. This restaurant is the only restaurant that I know that gives sign language classes.