News

Longtime Western QSR chain drops some ice in coffee shop business

August 9, 2017

Quick-serve chain, Lee's Sandwiches, is plunging into the coffee shop business, opening its first Lee's Coffee Roastery this week in Westminster, California, adjacent the original Lee's Sandwiches Bolsa store. The specialty of this coffee concept, however, is decidedly "cool," featuring the sandwich shop brand's longtime customer favorite, café da, or Vietnamese iced coffee. 

For the last 34 years, Lee's coffee has been made and sold in Lee's Sandwiches locations as part of the company's mission to share a love of Vietnamese-style coffee in the U.S., a news release said. In fact, the coffee brand is sold now at both Costco Wholesale and many Asian supermarket chains here and in the Philippines, and Vietnam.

The new Lee's Coffee Roastery features both beans sold directly to customers and handcrafted coffee beverages made on site by baristas, including drinks like espresso, Pour Over, traditional Vietnamese Filter and Cold Brew. Vietnamese coffee is made with a courser grind through a lengthy process using specific types of filters.

"Lee's Coffee Roastery ... will excite local customers with a unique coffee experience and engage with master roasters to choose special blends for your enjoyment, and to form a deeper connection with our Lee's Roastery," Lee's Sandwiches International President and CEO Chieu Le, said in the release. 

Parent brand, Lee's Sandwiches is a QSR specializing in Vietnamese sandwiches and other Euro-Asian food products. The concept began as a food truck in 1983, and now has more than 60 brick-and-mortar locations in Arizona, California, Nevada, Oklahoma, Oregon, Texas and Virginia. The chain has always been renowned for its Vietnamese iced coffee and European-Asian sandwiches, known as Banh Mi. 

Photo: iStock