Two Vietnamese culinary ventures are drawing huge lines in California’s Bay Area.
Vietnamese coffee at Lacàphê
A new Vietnamese coffee shop named Lacàphê has quickly become a local sensation in San Jose’s Little Saigon neighborhood. Since its opening in late August, Lacàphê has seen lines extending out the door, even surpassing neighboring restaurants and insurance offices, the San Francisco Chronicle reports.
Lacàphê, a clever play on the Vietnamese word for coffee, is different from your typical American coffee shop. Instead of opening and closing early, Lacàphê takes inspiration from contemporary coffee shops in Vietnam, catering to a younger clientele by remaining open until early evening.
The shop is co-owned by three Vietnamese Americans—Tho Le, Anh Le, and Thi Nguyen—who immigrated to San Jose 10 years ago. They originally started the business as a weekend pickup service but expanded the hours after its popularity skyrocketed. Weekend wait times often reached up to an hour.
Co-owner Tho Le explains to the San Francisco Chronicle, “Here, the coffee is what’s special.” Lacàphê’s menu reinvents traditional Vietnamese coffee with a modern twist. For example, the Signature Saigon coffee ($6.75) combines sweet, flavorful condensed milk coffee with a layer of salty, fluffy cream. The Eggspresso Hanoi ($6.95) offers a creative take on traditional Vietnamese egg coffee, featuring sweet beaten yolk foam and cocoa powder over mocha-like iced coffee.
In addition to these innovative coffee creations, Lacàphê serves iced teas, such as the kumquat chia tea ($6.50), a lotus tea base with citrus accents, aloe vera bits, and chia seeds for added texture. Customers can customize their drinks by adjusting ice levels and sweetness, similar to popular bubble tea shops.
While Lacàphê embraces modern Vietnamese coffee trends, it also adheres to the key principles of Vietnamese coffee culture. The coffee is brewed using traditional phin filters, a hallmark of Vietnamese coffee preparation. The shop uses robusta coffee beans, favored in Vietnam for their concentrated flavor and higher caffeine content. To cater to American preferences, a blend of arabica coffee is added to the brew.
The shop’s success is a testament to the growing demand for modern Vietnamese coffee in San Jose, a city with the highest Vietnamese population in the U.S.
With Lacàphê’s lines continuing to grow, the owners are considering the possibility of opening a second location.
Bánh Mì pop-up experience
Bay Area residents can enjoy delicious Bánh Mì at a pop-up in San Jose called Hết Sẩy.
According to KQED, Hết Sẩy was started during the pandemic by married couple DuyAn Le and Hieu Le, who have always loved cooking together. Before they started Hết Sẩy, Hieu worked as a line cook in college and DuyAn worked at Costco.
During the pandemic, they decided to turn their love for cooking Vietnamese food into a business. Hết Sẩy now pops up three times a week at places like a farmer’s market in Santa Clara, KQED reports.
“I want to showcase my regional food, the culture as well,” DuyAn, whose family is from a region in the Mekong Delta called Ming–Đại, told KQED. “We are the rice basket of Vietnam, as well as all the produce, a lot of fish.”
Hết Sẩy also mixes traditional Vietnamese recipes with new flavors.
“We’re evolving it to what we think is the best version of what this dish is meant to do,” Hieu told KQED. “By incorporating things like a coconut chili sambal, which is an inspiration from South India, a flavor we’re really into, and incorporating something uniquely us and uniquely Bay Area.”
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