Cool Beans Playhouse and Cafe

I’ve been taking my 2yr old here for several months and we think it’s great. The entrance fee of $ 6 for one child (adults are free) is reasonable, but definitely cheaper if you buy a multi-​pass. I love the food; tasty, affordable and healthy. The kids meals are cheap ($ 5 or less), and often FREE if you have a reward to cash in through their 5 Stars program, and rewards are frequent since we go often. On warm days the staff will open up the rolling door so the kids can see the train go by.
I have to say, I’m pretty baffled by the negative reviews I’ve read. There are plenty of toys to play with, but some toy sets sets are incomplete, which is expected… kids tend to «walk away» with items and some get broken. Not only is it unreasonable for any parent to expect any public playset to be complete, but unrealistic to expect the host to replenish those toy sets regularly.
The price of food and lattes ARE comparable to other coffee shops.
One reviewer commented on the cleanliness of the toys, and yes, it’s not necessarily sanitary, but it’s certainly not «disgusting». It’s a playground with dirt, germs and saliva. If I feel my child has played with something dirty, I clean it with a wipey and she has never gotten sick.
Also, another reviewer said it was cheaper to drive to Denver and go to the Childrens Museum of Denver than to pay the $ 6 entrance fee. This simply isn’t true. The entrance fee to CMofD is $ 13 for adult AND child = $ 26, not including an hour travel time, and the FoCo Museum of Discovery is $ 9.50/adult and small kids are $ 6.00.
Posted by just a mom with a toddler who explodes with excitement at Cool Beans :)

We had heard good things about this place but were somewhat disappointed during our first visit. That being said, the kids will love it because there are new things to climb on and toys to play with that they otherwise don’t have at home. When the weather is bad, this is a great place for kids to burn off some energy. The concept is great — a place for your kids to run around and entertain themselves while you relax and enjoy the on-​site café. The food and drinks are decent.
What we found disappointing was that the place could use some major up-​keep. The equipment and floors need to be maintained. Rugs are wearing, paint is faded and adult seating is worn. While my toddler loved the toys, any older child could see that they were lacking up-​keep as well. Most were broken or missing pieces. Everything was just a hodgepodge of individual «junk». Somethings even looked like they came right out of someone’s dusty garage, uncleaned. To be honest, all they need to do is go to consignment stores every now and again to update their offerings.

This is the coolest place. I went here for the first time and I was very impressed. They have free wifi and although it is kind of loud in here, I can finally get some homework done while my little one runs around. There is so much for the kids to do in here that my 2 year old never got bored. She played so hard and had a great time and I hammered out a lot of things I needed to get done. The food is also good and it is very reasonably priced. $ 6 to keep my two year old busy and engaged in real life play with other kids… WORTH IT.

I love the idea but they do not execute it well. The food and coffee is terrible and overpriced. Also, the play area could be cleaned a bit more and they need to redesign the large slide platform, my 2 ½ year old feel off it head first. The place needs a little bit of an update and new carpet.

Okay, so I keep going back.
–The food IS tasty!
— The staff is consistently good-​natured, bright, and competent!
— The other parents are perfectly lovely so far…
This place wins. I have gone for lunch with other adults and managed to have real interaction while not neglecting or inciting my child.
I seriously (ish) think there should be a govt subsidy whereby there is at least one of these shops in every town– particularly those with inclement, barfy weather.
Oh, and they do parties, so sometimes there’s a princess wandering around like no big deal.
If they sold O’dells I wouldn’t mind

Maybe the child care is handy for some, so I’m sorry to rain on that part of the parade, but the coffee I just spent almost $ 5 on was the worst I have ever had. I even asked politely for her to remake it because it tasted like water since she poured all four shots over the ice. Doesn’t appear she has had any training.
On a positive note. The play area for children looks cool. j
There’s good news! I just found Ft Collins Coffee House which is just a few blocks down from Cool Bean Playhouse located at 3761 S. Mason Street. Now this is GOOD coffee and relaxing atmosphere. I’ll go write some positive things about FTC!

I just took my 2 year old on Thursday morning, and he had a blast. He played non-​stop for a couple hours, and totally wore himself out. The food is good and the service was nice. We saw two shifts of kids while we were there. The first shift was kind and courteous, but some of the group that came in later were rude. Honestly, I couldn’t give it a bad review based on the few rude kids that were there. Most of them were awesome, and the environment seemed to be loved by all of the kids-​not just mine. We will go back for sure!

We stopped here while on a massive road trip. What a great find! Lunch was good, café fair. Both my husband’s panini (the hot cow) and my salad (apple harvest) were freshly prepared and good. Kiddo’s meal came with good portions of sides, and it was great seeing healthy alternatives. Top it off with a divided lunch tray and kid-​sized tables and she was in heaven.
The playspace was clean, modern and well maintained, well worth the 6 dollars to play. Lastly, but certainly not least, the staff was amazing. They told us about similar places and attractions for our family along our route. Should we find ourselves in Ft. Collins again, we’ll be back.

This was the perfect venue for our hodgepodge group. We had 90 degree temps outside and newborns up to Great-​Grandparents. We had a place for the kids to be active while the adults talked but also not so far away that they couldn’t be called back. However:
Don’t know why I assumed this but it does cost $ 6/​child over 1 year old. I was expecting a McDonalds experience where you eat and play. This place is a play and eat situation.
Socks. Must have socks or pay $ 2/​pair.
Seating: not enough options for larger groups but clean, sturdy, cared for furniture.
Food: definitely a $$ situation. The drinks were ok but maybe not worth the price. The smoothie was a fair price for a good snack.
Loved the variety of toys. Something for every age. Some toys probably need a good cleaning and maybe replacement but what kids gym doesn’t?
Customer service kinda iffy. Yes she took our family picture, not she didn’t seem happy to do it. Yes she took my $ 14 for two kids (one who isn’t even walking) and a pair of socks, no she didn’t seem to care that she was gainfully employed.
Fabulous changing tables!!! Other businesses should take note!

This is a really good idea but I think it could be improved. It’s a coffeehouse for families to bring their kids with a giant play area, that way the adults can hang out and the kids can play.
I was bummed there was an admission fee ($ 6 per kid) AND a menu — it makes sense you should be able to hang out if you buy coffee or food.
There is a bucket to put gross toys that were put in kids’ mouths, but it’s hidden away where no one will see it.
It would be cool if they offered milk steamers for the kids, just steamed milk with a little flavor. They might but I didn’t see it on the menu. I just think it is a cute idea for the kid to get «coffee» too, we like to do that with ours. And maybe more healthy snacks. It seemed like their healthy sides came with a full meal, not a la carte, but I didn’t ask so who knows — either way that wasn’t clear.

The concept for this place is great. If it were clean, I would gladly pay the $ 6 entry fee to let my son play. Unfortunately, this place is filthy and falling apart. The toys that are not totally broken are disgusting.
The staff seem totally uncaring for children’s safety — leaving gates to the stairs open several times within the hour we visited.
I would love to see some effort put in to make this a cleaner and safer environment. The staff could also use an attitude adjustment, as they seem disgruntled and annoyed with each other and their customers.

Interesting concept, I can say that. Think indoor playground with a coffee bar attached. We stopped in because we stayed at the hotel next door and wanted a beverage before heading out of town. Unfortunately it didn’t really meet our expectations, nor the family’s after us.
My cappuccino was meh, and was priced more than if I went to Starbucks. I thought perhaps the higher price was to keep the playground, but no — they charge per kiddo, and require socks on them all too, as the family after us found out. They had three kids, and at $ 6/​kid + $ for socks, they had to bow out.
Like I said, interesting concept, and probably serves others well, but wasn’t worth our stop. Space was a bit awkward if just stopping in for a coffee to-​go. I guess if you have kids and come for a while, this place could work for you. Check out their website for more pricing details/​options.

Love love love this place! A perfect place to bring your little (s) to play, love the environment and how safe it is for little ones to play and explore!

Places like Cool Beans are my favorite, especially during the bitter cold days of Colorado winter. With two rambunctious boys, both under 5, I sometimes feel like I’m drowning in messes and chaos. Cool Beans offers a safe place for the boys to play, and both can stay highly entertained for hours; there are so many toys for boys and girls of every age group.
It’s nice to have healthier options for lunches, but I feel like really, I end up paying much more than it’s worth (between food and admission for kids to play, I spend about $ 25 every visit, which adds up quickly if we come her more than a few times a month), which is the only reason for the deduction of one star.
They offer discounted prices for purchasing visits by the bulk; we just don’t come here often enough for that to pay off.

I LOVE Cool Beans! The food is amazing. The toys are modern and diverse for all ages and interests. The facility is clean. It’s a dream come true for parents looking for a very nice facility for their youngsters/​babies to play. I love the variety of menu items and healthy choices. This is one of my favourite places to eat in Fort Collins. It is worth every penny!

The kid loves it but I avoid it as much as possible. I’d say 4 stars for concept and 2 for execution.
Been here 5 or 6 times and consistently frustrated that it often closes early and the staff seem aloof or pissed off most of the time. Kids have to wear socks (which is weird since bare feet would be safer on those polished wood stairs) and there’s a ton of other anal retentive rules that don’t even touch on the biggest issue, that all ages are mixed and supervision is often minimal or helicopter with no friendly middle ground.

Wow! What an absolutely amazing, magical place! I brought my 3 children (10 yr and 7 yr twins) in today, thinking I’d have a cup of coffee, let them play for a bit and then we’d head out to run errands. 2 ½ hours later I had to drag them out… They did not want to leave! We stayed for a healthy, homemade lunch, which moms greatly appreciate. There is so much to do here in a SAFE environment (child-​lock gates everywhere) and it was always busy– they made a lot of new friends (mama did, too)! Highly recommend– check it out!!!

Under new ownership and fabulous. Coffee makes you forget about Starbucks, many healthy options including yummy breakfast wraps and salads. I will be back to try the green smoothies and paninis which looked awesome.
There was a Disney princess reading to little children and other kids playing, but no screaming! Nice retreat for parents to let their kids run tired. Will be back for sure.

Just discovered this place in May. They get 4 stars from me because my almost 2 year old loved it. We have tried several other indoor kids places but this is the first one that she has run off to play and didn’t really care if I stayed or not.
I appreciate their menu. The salad & panini I ordered were delicious and they have great options for kids. I don’t drive to FoCo that often but for this place I will.
NOTE– they were slammed the day I came so our food took a little longer than expected and I had to remind the lady about my drink.

I remember when I was a child I loved going to Showbiz Pizza to play games, romp on the attractions, watch the musical robots dressed as animals play songs and of course the pizza. That of course has changed and Showbiz merged with Chuck E Cheese and the pizza became subpar.
Going to Cool Beans reminded me much of my days at Showbiz. Kids romping and good food. These two things can still coexist.
I first saw Cool Beans and saw that it had the sign Café and Playhouse. Playhouse? What was that? Is this where plays were held? Slam poetry perhaps and other performance art? Shouldn’t this place be in Oldtown?
Well, there was only one way of knowing what playhouse meant. As soon as I walked in I realized that it was a playhouse for children. I felt drastically out of element. What if I was a male over the age of five, gay and not a parent? Guilty as charged on all three counts. I realized that being out of my element was not a bad thing and that being uncomfortable here because I was outside my demographic was self induced. Nearly every one here were little girls and boys with their mothers and lady staff members. I have been to parks in the southern part of town where just walking by a playground would garner looks from parents that were judgmental and ready to shout «Kidnapper» at the drop of a hat. The only look I got was from a mother that looked more curious as to why I was there than ready to break my knee caps. Most of the mothers were busy with their children, playing with them rather than people watching like good parents should. The staff was very friendly and my uneasiness waned some.
As far as food and drink goes, Cool Beans specializes in coffee drinks and mostly sandwiches. I was very excited to see that they served paninis here! They had a good variety from those sandwiches and I settled on the Cheese and Pesto Panini. I had the option of having a side. I went with the salad. The sandwich and salad were great! They were fresh and very flavorful! I ordered a cappuccino which was pretty good. It was not as robust as I was hoping but was fine. I did not see much for sweets. Probably to prevent a mob of children from going behind the counter and abscond with copious amounts of sugar (Kidding).
Obviously I did not go to the play area. A grown up cavorting on the equipment would land me in a nice little room called a cell. Grown men just don’t DO that no matter how many childish impulses we may have. I just sat typing on my tablet, going on Facebook and typing up a Unilocal review I believe.
These days I know only a handful of children as an adult. I have four little cousins which are adorable but I seldom see them and rarely get babysitter detail at this point in life. I have friends as well that have small children in town and will recommend Cool Beans to them next I visit. If no opportunity arises where I am babysitting then I have no problem coming here for a panini! Yum!