Vietnam’s Trung Nguyen Legend opens first store in the US

Viet · Sep 24, 2023

The interior of a Trung Nguyen Legend store in Shanghai, China | Photo credit: Trung Nguyen Legend

Source: Trung Nguyen Legend USA)

Facade of Trung Nguyên Legend Cafe in Vietnam.

Trung Nguyên Legend Cafe operates 110 hundred stores in Vietnam. Trung Nguyên Legend Cafe

Vietnamese premium coffee chain Trung Nguyen Legend has opened its first US outlet in partnership with California-based franchisee H&L Wholesale Food Corporation.

The 1,300sq ft store in Westminster, California, will serve an espresso-based coffee menu featuring items made using traditional Vietnamese phin brewing methods. Alongside a range of lattes and cappuccinos, the outlet will also serve cà phê trứng (Vietnamese egg coffee) and cà phê chồn (civet coffee).

“We want to bring Vietnamese coffee culture to the US. It’s not just a drink to us, it’s more about sitting down, enjoying each other’s company, and building connections with people,” said H&L’s Jennie Tang.

Founded in 1996, Trung Nguyen Legend currently operates 110 stores in Vietnam and three outlets in China, where the coffee chain made its international debut in September 2022.

Trung Nguyen Legend also distributes packaged retail coffee to more than 60 countries, including the US where it has had a presence in supermarkets for over 20 years.

H&L Wholesale Food Corporation was established in 2001 with the goal of supplying US households with Asian food and beverages retail products.

Alongside stocking Trung Nguyen’s G7 Coffee, Legend Instant Coffee and Trung Nguyen Coffee packaged coffee products, the business also distributes packaged retail tea from Phuc Long and a range of sauces, seasonings, dried products, rice and snacks.

Trung Nguyen Legend follows fellow Vietnamese coffee chains TNI King Coffee and Phuc Long Coffee & Tea in entering the US. The brands, which both entered the US market in 2021, each have a single-store presence in California.