Grab a Japanese-Style Yakiso Burger With Your Coffee at Café Cotton Bean in Crown Heights

CROWN HEIGHTS, BROOKLYN — Mayumi Maeda explained that she's had many jobs over the years, from teaching piano in Japan when she was young to making sandwiches at Anchor Coffee in Bed-Stuy.

Among her loves are fashion and coffee, she said, adding that people will always need clothing and food — two of the "essentials for your life" — no matter what's going on in the economy.

Maeda had been looking for a place to open a cafe for some time, she said, when she learned of an open space at 1077 Bergen St. opened. The result is Café Cotton Bean, a name that combines two of her passions: cotton and coffee beans.

Mayumi Maeda inside Café Cotton Bean

In a Kickstarter she launched backing the project, Maeda said it was her "dream to create a community that shared a love of the good 'snack' foods I enjoyed as a young girl in Japan, while enjoying the amazing flavors I've discovered over the last decade in New York."

The menu, which is still in progress, currently offers a variety of coffees and teas, plus juices and sandwiches, including a smoked salmon, ricotta and guacamole sandwich for $7.50.

A bacon, egg and cheese biscuit sandwich. Photo courtesy of Café Cotton Bean

But there's more to come, Maeda said, especially on the Japanese side of the culinary line. She's looking forward to serving rice burgers, which will combine American-style hamburgers with rice buns, as well as yakiso burgers, with buns made of noodles similar to ramen.

She's also excited to serve maccha jello with ice cream and syrup, another "after lunch snack" she said is popular in Japan, but appreciated here as well. Dumplings are also planned, as well as cleansing juices.

Café Cotton Bean is currently open seven days a week, from 7 a.m. to about 3:30 p.m. Monday through Friday, and on weekends from 8 a.m. to about 3:30 p.m.

Pictured at top: Café Cotton Bean. Photos by John V. Santore