The owners of Donerds Donuts hope to bring their travels around the world to their new cafe in South Side Bethlehem.
Zen Cafe will open in either the second or third week of September at 3 W. Morton. St., just across the street from the Lehigh University campus, where Saxby’s coffeehouse used to operate, according to co-owner Andrew Underwood. Underwood co-owns Zen, as well as Donerds, with his wife Annabel Figueroa.
Menu items will include coffee provided by Devoción Coffee, tea, croissants, Japanese-style sandwiches called sandos, scones, toast and mocktails. The cafe will also offer discounts to residents of Amicus student housing.
Underwood explained that he and his wife have traveled in the last 10 years to countries in Europe and South America, and wanted to make Zen a combination of the best ideas they’ve seen at other cafes.
They’re also partnering with Devoción for much fresher coffee than they would otherwise get due to the company’s much shorter turnaround period — “origin to cup” in just 10 days from Colombia, as the Devoción website promises.
“You really have to taste it to experience it,” Underwood said. “I don’t know if you’ve ever drank a cup of coffee and maybe thought that it tasted like cardboard or just the flavor is a little bit dull. I think that we’re all sort of accustomed to it, to be honest, but when you drink a coffee that’s this fresh, it can actually have naturally fruity flavors. You could drink the coffee black and there’s sweetness to it, just out of the straight black coffee.”
Underwood said that while they haven’t finalized the exact operating hours, they plan for Zen to be open all week.
The couple began Donerds in Chile in 2016 with a food truck before they later opened in Jim Thorpe in 2021 and in Bethlehem in 2023.