Tí Cafe is also women & minority owned!
Get ready Denver, because this sister-owned coffee shop, Tí Cafe just opened its doors on June 19th. The coffee shop, owned by three sisters, Sashaline, Shominic, an Shasitie Nguyen, will serve as a representation of close-knit family values and Vietnamese culture right here in Denver. Sashaline comes from a bartending background at one of our favorite bars, the Welton Room, but above all, the sisters wanted to create a space that honors community, and what better way to do that than with coffee?
We spoke to the sisters to get their perspective on what Tí Cafe means to them and the community. First off, the word Tí itself means “small” or “tiny” and is often a term of endearment. When it came to the concept, the sisters wanted to build something to represent Vietnamese culture in Denver, something they hadn’t seen yet in, and they focused in on doing that with Vietnamese coffee and small snacks. Not only is Vietnam the second biggest coffee producer in the world, but this was their chance to share a bit of their culture with the city, and they believe coffee is one of the fastest links between cultures and community. “We’ve always had the desire to share that experience [of communal eating and drinking] with others, especially with something unique to our culture.” Opening the cafe was a labor of love for them, and there were definitely some obstacles in their way, the biggest which was the pandemic that sent a shockwave through the restaurant industry. But the passion for the project came through, and the grand opening will finally happen this weekend.
The menu is traditional and simple, with a couple well-thought out coffees, sodas, and snacks. The Cafe Sua Da is a traditional Vietnamese Iced Coffee (with a Flan version that tops the iced coffee with fluffy, sweet flan.) For something hot, there’s the Cafe which is Vietnamese espresso or the Cafe Sua Nong, which is Vietnamese Hot Coffee with a twist: the coffee is a traditional phin dripped dark roast over condensed milk, shaken, and served hot.
For sodas, they’ve created fruit drinks like the Lychee Drink, with sparkling lychee flavored soda, lychee whip, and white lychee balls, and the Passion Fruit Drink, with sparkling soda and passion fruit. For snacks, you can choose from Mooncakes, which are mochi mooncakes with taro paste filling or a Banh Tieu, which is a Vietnamese fluffy donut. They’ve also got a savory snack, a Bahn Pate Chaud, which is a Vietnamese Meat Pie with pork filling.
Their opening hours will be M-Th from 10AM-8PM, Fri & Sat 10AM-12AM, and Sun 10AM-6PM.
We’ll see you there!
Where: 30 N Broadway, Denver, CO 80203