In what was a shocking development, the specialty coffee chain Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf abruptly closed its 12 Manhattan locations last week.
The shops were all franchises, not company-owned. The word is that the current franchise owners somehow ran into difficulty and that the company is committed to find another franchise operator.
Ironically, the network was the closest thing to being a national kosher chain, albeit that not all of it stores were kosher.
The American coffee chain was founded in 1963 and owned and operated by the Los Angeles-based International Coffee & Tea, LLC. As of August 2015, the chain has over 1000 self-owned and franchised stores in the United States and 24 other countries.
Many kosher customers were disappointed since the stores rapidly became the meeting place for many kosher observant Jews.
Although the menu varied from location to location, in many stores the kosher menu was pretty extensive, including sandwiches, salads, wraps and other dishes.
The branch in Los Angeles’s Fairfax district, where many Orthodox Jews reside, meets the stricter standard of Cholov Yisrael in their dairy products and pastries, and is also closed on Shabbos.
On its Website, Coffee Bean notes:
“All stores operated in Southern California, Arizona, Nevada, New York and Florida are proudly Kosher. You will see a Kosher Certificate prominently displayed in these stores. Additionally, all of our coffees and teas as well as the powders used to make our beverages are Kosher. The availability of Kosher certified food varies by location.”
“The branch in Los Angeles’s Fairfax district, where many Orthodox Jews reside, meets the stricter standard of Cholov Yisrael in their dairy products and pastries, and is also closed on Shabbos.”
Their pastires are not all Cholov Yisroel, only the ones from Delice are, and neither are many of their products.
Please ask a local Rav.
No. 2: No you’re talking about the midtown location I’m talking about the location Downtown in the Financial District.
No 3: GOOD POINT; totally forgot about Reserve as it’s way too expensive to just go to regularly.
Of course the Gold Standard downtown and in Manhattan
Reserve Cut is downtown …
Don’t forget about Mr. Broadway across the street of Bravo.
It’s a shame this is one of the locations that closed; there are really only 3 other kosher places in the area, including: Cafe11, Pita Express, and Bravo Pizza/Deli. This location had packaged dairy food that was Cholov Yisroel, not easy to get food in lower manhattan for frum workers in the area.