Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. (US, also bean cave) a cheap restaurant, orig. one that specialized in beans; also attrib.; thus beanery queen, a waitress; beanery-man, an owner or manager.

1884		N.Y. Times 16 Nov. 14: They claim that the cheap restaurants like Flynns, or beaneries, as they call them, obstruct the ventilation, and that their kitchens give forth gases and heat, which . . . hasten the early decay of all perishable goods in the old market.
1887		Grip (Toronto) 26 Feb. 8/2: Go to, illustrious reader; get thee to a beanery [OED].
1896		H. Blossom Checkers 153: I’ll go next door to the ‘beanery’ and get a roll and a cup of coffee.
1902		J.A. Riis Battle with the Slum 332: She made herself a favorite with every one except the ‘beanery-man’ on the corner, who denounced her angrily.
1905		‘Hugh McHugh’ You Can Search Me 20: Hereafter me for the beanery thing with the high stool and the low prices.
1906		S. Ford Shorty McCabe 201: I had a lithograph of Buddy and his beanery tip goin’ up against an argument like that.
1906		‘O. Henry’ ‘An Adjustment of Nature’ in Four Million (1915) 105: Straight to New York they hie, and lay their goods at the feet of the girl who serves them beans in a beanery.
1907		News & Courier (Charleston, SC) 14 Apr. 18/1: Went into a bean cave this morning to nail my uppercuts and Java.
1916		J. Lait ‘Ten Dollars’ Worth’ in Beef, Iron and Wine (1917) 234: Night after night he held forth in the beanery with his tales of long ago.
1929		T. Wolfe Look Homeward, Angel (1930) 180: Uneeda Lunch No. 3 [...] was a small beanery, twelve feet wide.
1938		D. Runyon ‘Neat Strip’ in Runyon on Broadway (1954) 608: She will probably do better for herself if she gets a job dealing them off her arm in a beanery.
1945		F.H. Hubbard Railroad Avenue 332: Beanery – Railroad eating house. Beanery queen is a waitress.
1946		Mezzrow & Wolfe Really the Blues 18: They were right for kicking me out of that beanery in Cape Girardeau.
1951		Kerouac letter 8 Jan. in Charters (1995) I 279: As I passed her beanery, and she saw me before I saw her.
1960		(con. 1950-1960) R.A. Freeman Dict. Inmate Sl. (Walla Walla, WA) 7: Beanery - a restaurant.
1967		Wodehouse Company for Henry 66: He used to wander around town trying to find some beanery where they’d have their own specials.
1977		Rolling Stone 22 Sept. 26: Munching a hamburger (with bean sprouts) at a beanery.
1982		S. King Running Man in Bachman Books (1995) 574: Cheap beaneries and shipping offices.
1996		H. Roth From Bondage 340: I can walk into a beanery with a nickel. Some of ’em’ll give you som’n stale with a cuppa java.
2002		W. Fiennes Snow Geese (2002) 165: We went straight to a beanery [...] for breakfast, lunch and dinner all rolled into one.

2. a boarding house.

1902		Ade Forty Modern Fables 198: I have been all over the Country putting up at bad Beaneries.
1908		‘Hugh McHugh’ Go To It 9: Say! aren’t some of these Reub beaneries the woozy limit!
1914		Ade ‘The New Fable of the Wandering Boy’ in Ade’s Fables 122: He had hung up his Diploma and Razor Strop in the third-story Recess of a very naughty Beanery.
1920		Ade Hand-made Fables 38: [He] found himself domiciled in a Refined Joint that was a cross between a Salon and a Beanery.

3. (US prison) a prison; a prison dining room.

1941		‘More Tennessee Expressions’ in AS XVI:1 Feb. 446/2: beanery. Jail. ‘Sol’s in the beanery.’.
1962		Ragen & Finston World’s Toughest Prison 790: beanery – The inmate dining room.