Lee's Sandwiches facts for kids
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Trade name
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Lee’s Sandwiches |
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| Private | |
| Industry | Restaurants |
| Genre | Fast Casual |
| Predecessor | Lee Bros. Foodservice, Inc. |
| Founded | June 1983 San Jose, California, United States |
| Founders | Chieu Lê |
| Headquarters |
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United States
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Number of locations
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61 (2021) |
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Area served
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Key people
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| Products | Bánh mì, Vietnamese iced coffee, chè, desserts |
| Revenue |  US$32 million (2021) |
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Number of employees
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2,000 (2021) |
Lee's Sandwiches is an American fast food restaurant chain that sells delicious Vietnamese cuisine. The company's main office is in San Jose, California. It has restaurants in several U.S. states and in Taiwan.
Lee's Sandwiches is famous for its bánh mì, which are Vietnamese-style sandwiches. They also sell "European-style" sandwiches on baguette bread, Vietnamese iced coffee, and a Vietnamese dessert called chè. The chain helped make Vietnamese sandwiches and coffee popular with many Americans. It also inspired other Vietnamese families to open their own bakery chains.
Contents
The Story of Lee's Sandwiches
The story of Lee's Sandwiches begins with the Lê family. Before the Vietnam War, they owned a successful sugar factory in Vietnam. The family came to the United States in July 1979. After living in a few different places, they settled in San Jose, California, in 1980.
Starting with a Food Truck
One of the family members, Chieu Le (Lê Văn Chiêu), first worked as a cook on a food truck. In 1981, he bought his own truck. He and his wife, Yen, sold food like hamburgers, burritos, and bánh mì to office workers.
The next year, Chieu's brother Henry also bought a food truck. The two brothers started a business supplying food to other mobile food trucks. They called their company Lee Bros. Foodservice, Inc., changing their Vietnamese last name "Lê" to the American-sounding "Lee." By 1985, their company was serving over 500 food trucks.
Opening the First Restaurant
In 1983, Chieu and Henry's parents started borrowing Chieu's truck on weekends. They sold bánh mì near the San Jose State University campus. The sandwiches were so popular that other nearby restaurants complained.
So, in June 1983, the family opened their first official shop, Lee's Sandwiches, on the same street corner. A few years later, in 1988, they moved to a bigger location in a Vietnamese neighborhood in East San Jose.
Growing the Business
On August 8, 2001, the family opened a new type of store in Westminster, California. It was an American-style bakery and café. This new store had a bigger menu with deli sandwiches, coffee, and desserts. The goal was to attract all kinds of customers, not just Vietnamese people.
The new store was a huge success. Within a year, Lee's Sandwiches opened seven more locations across California. In 2005, the company began to franchise. This means they allowed other people to open their own Lee's Sandwiches restaurants.
By 2006, Lee's was one of the fastest-growing fast-food chains in the western United States. In March 2006, it opened its largest restaurant yet in Houston, Texas.
Going International
The company continued to grow. On August 8, 2008, Lee's opened a café in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. In August 2015, a new location opened in Taipei, Taiwan.
By 2017, Lee's Sandwiches was listed as one of the 12 largest bakery-café chains in the United States. On August 8, 2017, the family opened a special coffee shop called Lee's Coffee Roastery in Westminster, California.
During the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, many restaurants, including Lee's, stopped allowing customers to eat inside. Instead, they focused on take-away and pickup orders to keep everyone safe.
Restaurants Today
As of 2018, Lee's Sandwiches has 59 locations in the United States. You can find them in states with large Vietnamese American communities, such as:
One shop is located right across from the original location, next to San Jose City Hall. Lee's Sandwiches is also one of the first Vietnamese businesses to open inside major shopping malls.
See also
- List of bakery cafés
- List of restaurant chains in the United States
- List of Vietnamese restaurants
- Phở Hòa, another Vietnamese restaurant chain that began in San Jose
