Zen Cafe celebrated its grand opening at 3 W. Morton St. on Nov. 2, bringing a new coffee shop to South Side following the departure of Saxbys. The cafe held a two-week soft opening before its official launch and offers specialty coffees, matcha, seasonal drinks and a variety of food.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The cafe occupies the former Saxbys location and aims to create a welcoming environment for students and the surrounding community.<\/p>\n
Austin Brooks, co-founder of Amicus, said the idea to bring Zen Cafe to the neighborhood began about a year ago, when he learned Saxbys would be leaving the location.<\/p>\n
\u201cFrom a community perspective, we just didn\u2019t want to see this place empty,\u201d Brooks said. \u201cWe knew students loved to have a place they could relax and grab a coffee or a bite to eat.\u201d<\/p>\n
Brooks said Amicus approached Zen Cafe\u2019s owners, Annabelle and Andy, about filling the vacant space.\u00a0<\/p>\n
He said the owners spent most of the summer researching coffee shops in the Lehigh Valley and New York to develop their concept.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnnabelle and Andy put a real personal touch into it,\u201d Brooks said. \u201cThey\u2019re really passionate about it, and so I think it really shows in everything they deliver.\u201d<\/p>\n
Brooks said the cafe\u2019s opening is part of an effort to provide students with more places to visit outside the classroom.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think that for us as people in the local community to have restaurants and places for students to go, it just makes the neighborhood better,\u201d Brooks said.<\/p>\n
Zen Cafe also offers a 50% discount on your first drink of the day and a 20% discount on all drinks and food to students living in Amicus properties through its partnership with the company.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you\u2019re an Amicus tenant, you get a discount on your coffee every day,\u201d Brooks said.<\/p>\n
Brooks said he believes the quality of Zen Cafe\u2019s coffee and matcha, along with the owners\u2019 attention to detail, will distinguish it from other coffee shops in the area.<\/p>\n
Molly Pecic, \u201828, is a Zen Cafe employee and said she first learned about the job opportunity through Instagram when the cafe announced it was hiring.\u00a0<\/p>\n
After seeing the post, Pecic contacted the owners directly and joined the staff.<\/p>\n
Pecic said she has enjoyed working at the cafe because of the opportunity to interact with other students.<\/p>\n
\u201cI love seeing all my friends and everybody here,\u201d Pecic said. \u201cI think that\u2019s what makes it so enjoyable, rather than like a typical coffee shop I work at at home.\u201d<\/p>\n
Pecic said the cafe\u2019s owners, a husband-and-wife team, encourage employees to contribute ideas and menu suggestions.<\/p>\n
She said the owners have been receptive to employees\u2019 suggestions during the cafe\u2019s first few weeks of operation.<\/p>\n
Pecic said the two-week soft opening gave employees an opportunity to begin serving customers before the official grand opening.\u00a0<\/p>\n
She said customers have shown particular interest in the cafe\u2019s specialty lattes and matcha drinks.<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople love the pumpkin spice latte,\u201d Pecic said. \u201cIt\u2019s pumpkin and maple instead of typical pumpkin.\u201d<\/p>\n
Other drinks include house-made Madagascar vanilla, caramel lattes and a cardamom latte, which Pecic said has been unexpectedly popular.<\/p>\n
Social media has also introduced students to the cafe.<\/p>\n
Mila Jovanovic, \u201827, a customer who attended the grand opening, said she first learned about Zen Cafe after its Instagram page appeared on her feed.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI think it\u2019s so cute what they did with the renovations,\u201d Jovanovic said. \u201cAnd I\u2019m about to get my first latte Zen, so I\u2019m really excited.\u201d<\/p>\n
Brooks said the opening represents more than simply filling a vacant storefront.\u00a0<\/p>\n
He said having businesses that cater to students gives them more opportunities to spend time in the surrounding community.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re happy that students have a place to get coffee on their way to class,\u201d Brooks said. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Zen Cafe celebrated its grand opening at 3 W. Morton St. on Nov. 2, bringing a new coffee…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":321712,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[4842,153,155,154,1197],"class_list":["post-321711","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-bethlehem","tag-3-minute-read","tag-bethlehem","tag-bethlehem-headlines","tag-bethlehem-news","tag-feature"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/321711","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=321711"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/321711\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/321712"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=321711"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=321711"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=321711"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}