New restaurant brings modern Vietnamese food — and $7 coffee drinks — to Fresno
Springly is a new modern Vietnamese restaurant in Fresno — but you can get much more than just a meal here.
There are bouquets of fresh flowers for purchase, pastries in rare flavors, such as a Thai tea cream puff, and creative coffee drinks from an independent local coffee business.
It’s all wrapped up in a whimsical, colorful vibe. At first glance, Springly might look like a national chain, but it’s locally owned.
Springly is still in the beginning stages of opening and introducing new menu items weekly. It’s in the Villaggio shopping center on north Blackstone Avenue, near Barnes & Noble.
Technically, there’s three more businesses in addition to Springly coming together for this spot:
- Noc Box Coffee Studio, a local mobile espresso drink cart, is serving the coffee.
- Culture Bakehouse is a Clovis baker providing Asian-inspired pastries it doesn’t sell anywhere else.
- Fresno Flower Market based in downtown provides bouquets at Springly available for purchase.
Springly is the brainchild of Selena Le, who also owns the RareTea shop in the Marketplace at El Paseo in northwest Fresno.
She said she wants Springly to have a certain feel: “It’s that vision of leaving a farmers market with fresh bread and food and flowers and veggies.”
Drinks
Since coffee culture is a big deal in Vietnam, Le wanted an extra special drink menu at Springly. She brought in Noc Box, a mobile coffee cart that often sells at Enzo’s Table.
“It’s a little work of art in every cup,” she said.
Their specialty is the Cloud 9. It’s espresso sweetened with condensed milk and topped with a coconut cold foam and toasted coconut.
There are also lattes, teas, and all sorts of other creative drinks.
Drinks come only in 12 ounces — the equivalent of a Starbucks tall. A few drinks, including the Cloud 9, cost $7, with most lattes at $6.
To contrast, a caramel macchiato of the same size from Starbucks costs $5.25.
But these coffee drinks are not from a big chain.
“We wanted to keep the integrity of the beans, the bean-to-milk ratio. That’s where it pairs perfectly. ” Le said. “It is an art for them and an art for us. Everything is carefully crafted.”
The milk comes from Rosa Brothers in Tulare County. The matcha is ground fresh and shipped from Japan within 48 hours, she said.
The food
Springly is still unveiling its food menu and will eventually serve breakfast, lunch and dinner in a fast-casual style.
It’s food inspired by her Vietnamese family, but with a modern twist.
There are spring rolls with shrimp and banh mi sandwiches (the traditional Vietnamese sandwich made with French baguettes).
And there’s breakfast too, including a breakfast banh mi sandwich with a soft toasted baguette smeared with herb butter, eggs, ham, cheese and more. She deliberately chose soft bread.
“The last thing you want is, one, crumbs everywhere, and two, the roof of your mouth to be annihilated,” she said.
Sandwiches and build-your-own bowls are coming too.
The pastries are Asian-inspired. Springly and Culture Bakehouses’s version of a Pop-Tart — such as the pandan matcha, which combines vanilla and earthy flavors with green frosting — sells out every weekend.
Details: Springly is at 7859 N. Blackstone Ave. in the Villaggio shopping center. Hours: 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Mondays through Saturdays, 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Sundays.
This story was originally published August 26, 2024 at 1:26 PM.
