St. Pete, let’s talk about your coffee problem. Not the fact that you have one, but the glorious fact that it’s about to get significantly worse, and you should absolutely let it.
Say Coffee House is having its soft opening this weekend, April 30 and May 1, at 2414 Central Ave. in the Grand Central District. The name “Say” translates to “obsessed” in Vietnamese, which is honestly the most transparent branding in the history of coffee shops. Nobody’s naming their place after a psychological dependency unless they’re confident they can back it up. Owner Haley Huynh, who also runs Sip Tea Boba in Pinellas Park, clearly is.
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Here’s the setup. Vietnamese coffee is brewed through a phin, a small metal drip filter that produces a slow, bold cup. The beans are robusta, imported directly from Vietnam, the second-largest coffee exporter on the planet, and they carry nearly twice the caffeine of the arabica beans you’re probably used to. That’s not a fun fact. That’s a warning label.
The menu they’ve put together looks like someone handed a very talented person a camera and said, “make people feel things.” The Iced Vietnamese Coffee pairs that slow-dripped phin brew with sweetened condensed milk and it’s exactly as good as it sounds. The Say Xiu, also called the Marble Drip, layers condensed milk, milk, and espresso into something that photographs beautifully and apparently drinks even better.
For the matcha people, and there are a lot of you, there’s the Matcha Einspanner with sweet cream foam, a Matcha Duo that adds espresso into the mix, a Strawberry Matcha Latte, and an Ube Matcha topped with ube cream foam that is one of the prettier drinks you’ll see this side of your Instagram feed.
If tea is your thing, the Salted Cream Honey Green Tea and Honey Lemon Green Tea round out a menu that’s as thoughtful as it is photogenic.
Say Coffee House is the kind of opening St. Pete doesn’t get every weekend. Go this Friday or Saturday, order something you can’t pronounce, and figure out what “obsessed” actually feels like.
Be sure to follow Say Coffee House on Instagram and TikTok.
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