A new cafe has taken over the former Saxby’s spot across from Lehigh University, pouring ceremonial-grade matcha and coffee that its owners say travels from Colombian farms to the cup in as little as 10 days. Zen Cafe held its soft opening on Oct. 19 at 3 W. Morton St. in South Bethlehem, and it’s already drawing attention for a menu that blends sourdough cookies, Japanese-style sandwiches and espresso drinks under one roof.
The cafe sits at West Morton and South New streets, directly across from Lehigh University’s Farrington Square, according to WFMZ. It’s owned by Andrew Underwood and Annabel Figueroa, the couple behind Donerds Donuts, though the two businesses operate as distinctly separate entities and Zen Cafe will not carry doughnuts. The space previously housed a Saxby’s location that did not renew its lease, as The Brown and White reported ahead of the opening.
Underwood has said Zen Cafe is a concept separate from Donerds, according to WFMZ, even though a Donerds shop sits just a block away in south Bethlehem. The cafe seats around 30 guests at tables and lounge furniture, blending what one outlet described as a Japandi aesthetic mixing Japanese and Northern European design influences, per WhatNow.
Devoción Coffee and Hand-Whisked Matcha
The cafe’s coffee program centers on Devoción, a Brooklyn-based roaster that sources beans from Colombian farms in active harvest, per the same WFMZ report. Zen Cafe’s own site touts that the coffee travels from farm to cup in only 10 days, a point Underwood has echoed by calling Devoción among the freshest coffee worldwide, according to the cafe’s reporting.
Matcha gets similar reverence. The cafe sources ceremonial-grade matcha from Uji gardens and hand-whisks it to create what it describes as a velvet texture with rich, vegetal depth, according to the Zen Cafe website. Figueroa and Underwood reportedly discovered Devoción coffee during trips to New York City and separately fell in love with traditional matcha preparation, inspirations that shaped the menu they eventually built in South Bethlehem.
Sourdough Cookies and Japanese-Inspired Sandos
On the food side, the cafe makes scones and cardamom buns on-site, while its sourdough cookies come from Lehigh Valley-based Saray Sourdough, including chocolate peanut butter, brown butter chocolate chip, cinnamon roll cheesecake and s’mores varieties. The Brown and White’s review of the cafe found the s’mores, cinnamon roll cheesecake and chocolate chip cookies all priced at $4 each, pricing the outlet’s editorial board called comparable to those of Crumbl.
The signature sandwich lineup includes a tamago sando made with Japanese egg salad, alongside ham and gruyere and strawberry and cream versions. Underwood has said the tamago uses a special Japanese mayonnaise and crustless, soft Japanese milk bread, and WhatNow’s coverage described the tamago sando as the most popular item on the menu. The cafe also sells a Zen Breakfast priced at $7.95, with a bacon, egg and cheese option served on brioche or as a burrito, per the Brown and White’s review following the opening.
From a Food Truck in Chile to Two Lehigh Valley Concepts
Underwood and Figueroa’s business story began well before South Bethlehem. Figueroa is from Santiago, Chile, and the two met while Underwood, who is from New Jersey, was traveling there. Accounts of exactly when their doughnut business began differ: WFMZ reported they started selling doughnuts in 2015 from a refurbished 1981 Volkswagen bus in Santiago, while the Morning Call reported the couple began Donerds in Chile in 2016 with a food truck.
Donerds opened its first brick-and-mortar location in Chile in October 2019 and now has two franchises there, according to WFMZ’s earlier reporting. The couple brought the concept stateside with a first regional store in Jim Thorpe in early 2021, followed by a second south Bethlehem location in 2023 at 3 E. Fourth St. That shop has built a large and loyal following over several years, rotating through roughly 100 doughnut varieties alongside macarons and coffee from Intelligentsia Coffee in Chicago.
With Zen Cafe now serving coffee, matcha, scones and sandos daily from morning through evening, Underwood and Figueroa have effectively planted two distinct food concepts within a block of each other in South Bethlehem. The pair, who have said they dreamed of opening a cafe for years, drew on their own travels to coffee shops to shape Zen Cafe’s menu, according to Figueroa’s comments reported by WFMZ.
