Cult favorite 7 Leaves Cafe lands in the Bay Area
Ten minutes after the butcher paper came off the windows at 1743 Berryessa Road in San Jose, the line starting forming. And it has rarely let up.
Customers are flocking to the newest location of 7 Leaves Cafe, a Southern California cult favorite that specializes in iced coffee and tea — and pretty much only coffee and tea. It’s so popular with Northern Californians that families have been known to bring ice chests along on trips down south so they can stock up on their 7 Leaves favorites, which are available in half-gallon jugs (as well as medium and large sizes).
About 15 drinks are offered, all of them iced. Three are coffees: the house coffee, a sweet and creamy concoction with a touch of hazelnut (it’s the bestselling coffee on the menu); a traditional Vietnamese iced coffee; and the sea cream black coffee, a lightly sweetened coffee served with a topping of sea-salt cream. Of the dozen teas, the most popular is the mung bean tea, made with mung beans and pandan leaves. Other offerings include Assam milk tea, Japanese matcha tea, Thai tea, taro milk tea, Sunset Passion and a secret-blend herbal tea.
The menu is intentionally simple, 7 Leaves executive Vinh Le said, because it’s a labor-intensive enterprise, with all of the drinks crafted on-site — from cooking the taro and mung beans to squeezing the passion fruit to brewing the tea. More than 30 employees were hired for the North San Jose shop.
And every batch must pass muster. “It’s part of our procedure to taste-test for consistent quality,” he said.
The 7 Leaves Cafe — nicknamed by many the “Asian Starbucks” — was founded in 2012 in Orange County’s Little Saigon by a group of seven, four brothers and three friends. It has since grown to 16 locations in Southern California, with expansion plans that include Las Vegas and Houston.
Le, who oversees the Bay Area expansion, expects to open three or four more cafes in the San Jose-Milpitas area this year.
“People have been asking for our brand to come here for a long time,” said Le, who is scouting other sites throughout the South Bay, especially those with drive-thru potential.
DETAILS » 7 Leaves Cafe opens at 7 a.m. weekdays and 8 a.m. weekends. Closing time is 11 p.m. Sunday-Thursday and midnight Friday-Saturday. 1743 Berryessa Road at Lundy Avenue, San Jose; www.7leavescafe.com.
Humphry Slocombe to open ice cream shop in Berkeley
Yes, gourmet ice cream fans, soon you will be able get a scoop of Secret Breakfast in Berkeley.
San Francisco’s trailblazing ice cream shop, Humphry Slocombe, will open in the former Ici scoop shop at 2948 College Ave. in
Elmwood. Indeed, big scoopers to fill. And fill them they will — with high-quality, ingredient driven, oddball flavors like duck fat pecan pie, brown sugar fennel, carrot mango sorbet and yes, that glorious mixture of cornflakes and bourbon.
The shop, its second in the East Bay, is the fifth overall for the small chain and promises to draw the same long lines that
Mary Canales’ beloved Ici did. Ici closed in November. (By the way, the other Humphry Slocombe in the East Bay is located at 2335 Broadway in Oakland.)
No word on an opening date yet in Berkeley, but according to Eater SF, Humphry Slocombe is hosting a series of pop-ups around town; the first one was Feb. 9.
Roam Artisan Burgers opens in San Ramon
Roam Artisan Burgers’ sustainably sourced menu has come to San Ramon.
The sixth outpost from the San Francisco-based company co-founded by Josh Spiegelman and Lynn Gorfinkle opened Feb. 11 at City Center Bishop Ranch.
Roam specializes in “pasture-to-plate”
burgers of grassfed beef, all-natural bison, freerange turkey or organic veggies on buns from Pacific Coast Bakery. New on the menu for the San Ramon launch is a pasture-raised lamb burger sourced from Northern California’s Cascade Creek Lamb. There’s also
a winter burger topped with quince spread, Brie and applewood-smoked bacon.
Customization options at Roam go way beyond the basics to include Gruyere, oil-andvinegar slaw, cremini mushrooms, free-range eggs — even truffle Parmesan fries. Sauces (a dozen), butter lettuce, tomatoes, onion and housemade pickles come free.
Russet and sweet potato fries and zucchini-onion haystacks are offered as sides.
Artisan sodas in unusual flavors (caramelized pineapple, prickly pear) are crafted inhouse, and the shakes are made with organic Straus Family ice cream. The seasonal drink is a blood orange white wine spritzer.
Roam first expanded outside San Francisco, where there are two locations, to Lafayette in 2013. Other locations are in San Mateo and uptown Oakland.
DETAILS >> Roam in San Ramon serves from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Sunday through Thursday, 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Friday and Saturday at 6000 Bollinger Canyon Road; www.roamburgers.com.
Send restaurant tips to Linda Zavoral at lzavoral@ bayareanewsgroup.com.