Management At Cary Coffee Shop Wants You To Groove

The coffee shop on Main Street is back in business after three months of being shuttered.

But it has a new owner, a new name and a new vibe.

You hear music of the Beatles, Grateful Dead and Allman Brothers when you enter the place. And you’ll notice this shop – which specializes in brewing coffees and exotic teas – is decorated with statues of the squatting, smiling Buddha.

“The music you hear is my iTunes on shuffle,” said 19-year-old John Plazak, the manager of Buddha Bean, who said he was born in the wrong decade.

His heart, he said, is back in the 1960s.

He said he gets to work at 5 a.m. The shop opens at 5:30 a.m. weekdays to cater to commuters who are catching the Chicago-bound Metra train.

Music by Tea Leaf Green, a band Plazak is especially partial to, sets the mood inside the coffee shop.

“It’s new age rock with a lot of groove and funk,” Plazak said. “It’s perfect coffee-shop music. We want to put out some positive energy here.”

Sandy Knight, the new owner, said besides gourmet coffee and specialty teas, Buddha Bean also offers an oatmeal breakfast.

Knight said she spent 30 years in the coffee business, both retail and wholesale.

She got the idea for using Buddha for a motif after taking a trip to Sri Lanka.

“I was there to learn about tea,” she said. “Buddha statues were everywhere.”