Midtown Tallahassee · Since 1996
Eat, drink and talk loud.
You’re among friends. A small, loud, brightly painted room on Thomasville Road where the menu is rewritten every single day — and has been since 1996.
- Lunch
- Mon–Fri, 11:00 AM – 2:30 PM
- Dinner
- Mon–Thu, 5:30 – 9:00 PM
Fri & Sat, 5:30 – 10:00 PM - Sunday Brunch
- Seasonal — call to confirm
- Find us
- 921 Thomasville Road
Midtown Tallahassee
Thirty years, thirty thousand menus
A restaurant that refuses to repeat itself
Keith Baxter opened Kool Beanz Cafe on 4 June 1996, in a low building on a stretch of Thomasville Road that had not yet decided to become Midtown. London-born, Florida-trained, he had cooked his way around the state and decided this would be the last stop.
The idea was simple and slightly reckless: write a new menu every day. Not a rotating list of specials bolted onto a fixed card — the whole thing, lunch and dinner and dessert, rewritten around whatever came in that morning. Thirty years later the kitchen is still doing it.
What that produces is food nobody can quite categorise. Southern and Caribbean and Asian and Latin American ideas end up on the same plate because the cooks travel, read, argue, and try things. Cornmeal fried oysters over cheddar grits sit on the same page as sesame-seared tuna with gochujang shiitakes. It should not hold together. It does.
The short version
What you are walking into
A small independent restaurant in Midtown Tallahassee, run by the same chef-owner since the day it opened, with art for sale on every wall and a kitchen you can watch from the bar.
- 1996
- Opened on 4 June by chef-owner Keith Baxter, and independently owned ever since
- Daily
- A brand-new lunch, dinner and dessert menu written every day the doors open
- 30
- Guests seated in The Room, our private dining space for events and parties
- James Beard
- Pastry chef Sylvia Gould named a national semifinalist for Outstanding Pastry Chef in 2020
Menus
Four services, one rule: it changes
Today’s actual menu goes up on Facebook each morning. The menus below are real examples pulled from our kitchen’s archive — read them as a portrait of how we cook, not as a list to order from.
Lunch
Fast enough for a working lunch, serious enough that people drive in from out of town for it. Salads, plates, pasta.
Example lunch menuDinner
Starters worth ordering three of, a long list of plates, and the room at its loudest and best.
Example dinner menuDesserts
The reason people who claim not to have a sweet tooth end up ordering two. Made fresh every day.
Example dessert menuWines & beer
An intentionally odd list — the esoteric bottle rather than the obvious one — plus domestic and imported beer.
Wine & beer listFrom the pass
Plates that have come out of this kitchen
None of these are on the menu today. That is rather the point. They are here so you can see the hand behind the cooking.
Private dining
The Room at Kool Beanz
Next door to the main dining room is a quiet, self-contained space that seats up to thirty. It has its own entrance, its own walls of art, and none of the noise you came for — which is exactly what a rehearsal dinner, a board lunch or a fundraiser needs.
You can design the menu with our chefs rather than picking from a banquet sheet. Wine tastings, bridal luncheons, business presentations, retirement parties and charity evenings have all happened in here.
- Minimum 20 guests, maximum 30
- Reservations for the main dining room accepted for parties of 8–12
- Custom menus built with the kitchen
- Call The Room directly on (850) 999-1372, 11 AM–10 PM
In their words
What people say after they leave
Thirty years of guests, and the same three things come up: the menu changed again, the dessert was better than it needed to be, and nobody was pretentious about any of it.
Since the menu changes daily, it is possible to return every day and manage to find something that sounds so good you just can’t resist.
Gourmet food without the pretentious attitude. The atmosphere is pretty casual. For dinner, make sure you get there early and put your name on the list.
The food here is truly art on a plate — which is appropriate, as there is art from local artists all over the walls that can be purchased.
Find us
921 Thomasville Road
Look for the low building with the hand-painted sign and the sun mural, on the west side of Thomasville Road in the heart of Midtown. If you drive past something that looks like a first-class restaurant, you have gone too far — that is not us, and guests have been saying so affectionately for thirty years.
- Address921 Thomasville Road, Tallahassee, FL 32303
- Restaurant(850) 224-2466
- The Room(850) 999-1372
- ParkingSmall on-site lot plus street parking on the surrounding Midtown blocks
- PaymentAll major credit cards accepted
Before you come in
The five things people call and ask us most often.
Do you take reservations?
For the main dining room we work mostly on a first-come, first-served basis, and we will take a booking for parties of 8 to 12. Larger groups belong in The Room, our private dining space, which seats a minimum of 20 and up to 30 guests. Call (850) 224-2466 and we will sort you out.
Why does the menu change every day?
Because the kitchen writes it every day. What arrives fresh that morning decides what gets cooked that afternoon. It keeps our cooks interested and it means regulars can eat here every week for thirty years and still be surprised. The current day’s menu is posted on our Facebook page; the menus on this site are representative examples so you can see how we cook.
How dressed up should I be?
Not at all, unless you want to be. Come in a suit from the Capitol or come in flip-flops from the coast. Both are normal here, often at neighbouring tables.
Is it always this loud?
Usually, yes. The dining room is small, the kitchen is open, and the motto is on the wall for a reason. If you want a quieter meal, early lunch and the first dinner seating are your best bets, or ask about the covered patio.
Can you handle vegetarian, vegan or gluten-free?
Yes, and we do it every service. Tell your server what you need and the kitchen will adapt or build something. See dietary and allergens for detail.
Come and be loud with us
Lunch from 11, dinner from 5:30, and a menu you have never seen before.