Christian Green worked in the service industry for more than a decade — including a stint managing the beverage program at the Four Seasons Hotel in Atlanta — before leaving for a more stable schedule in a corporate role.
But while he enjoyed the normal hours, he didn’t enjoy the work, and longed for his days in food and beverage.
“We started talking about ways we could balance the two things,” said his wife, Anne. “We kept our eye out for spaces and kept thinking of ideas and ways to make it work.”
Credit: Courtesy of Green Beans ATL
Credit: Courtesy of Green Beans ATL
Last month, he returned to his first professional love, this time with a far more desirable schedule, with the opening of Green Beans ATL coffee shop in Grant Park.
The name is a nod to the couple’s last name, the color of raw, unroasted coffee beans and sustainable sourcing.
While Christian oversees the food and beverage operations, Anne, who also runs the Peach Pit gym in Buckhead, handles the business and marketing side.
Located at 760 United Ave. SE, Green Beans offers a variety of coffee drinks using ethically sourced beans, roasted in-house. Whole roasted beans are also available for purchase. Non-coffee drinks include Italian sodas; Thai iced tea and several other tea drinks like chai latte and London Fog; and smoothies from Atlanta business Arden’s Garden.
On the food side, the shop offers pastries, bagels, breads and muffins from local bakeries Alon’s and Engelman’s, as well as homemade lunch dishes including salads and hot and cold sandwiches.
The Green Beans space, previously home to an architectural lighting firm, features a walk-up window that faces United Avenue and allows customers to place grab-and-go orders.
Credit: Courtesy of Green Beans ATL
Credit: Courtesy of Green Beans ATL
“We designed our layout around the window,” Anne said. “Being able to serve people who are walking dogs or on a job with a baby and they don’t necessarily want to come inside, it’s an opportunity to get to the people who can’t necessarily get to us inside. It’s an original feature of the building that we were really excited to utilize.”
The interior was designed to “create the feeling that you’re hanging out in someone’s living room,” Anne said. The main area is meant to be a place to socialize, while a side room called the Study features banquette seating, a separate speaker system, fast internet and outlets for people who want to work. The Study can also be reserved for meetings and special events.
Credit: Courtesy of Green Beans ATL
Credit: Courtesy of Green Beans ATL
The decor draws in local elements including a woven tapestry using drawings of native magnolias created by Anne’s aunt, a textile artist in Grant Park, and a 1904 planning map of the neighborhood, showing the original location of the park’s lake and Zoo Atlanta. The space also pulls in a color palette of greens and golds along with wood and leather accents.
Being located in the heart of their neighborhood keeps the Greens connected to their community and also allows them to involve their family in the business. “Because we’re already involved with our kids being in school here and being in the area for a long time, it was really the perfect mesh of everything coming together,” Anne said.
Opening hours are 630 a.m.-3 p.m. Mondays-Fridays and 7:30 a.m.-3 p.m. Saturdays-Sundays.
760 United Ave. SE, Atlanta. greenbeansatl.com
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