TRA Viet Coffee and Tea

The sealed can is the signature move. A machine crimps an aluminum pop top onto a clear vessel so you can see the layers of Vietnamese coffee before you crack it open, and the drink is canned to order rather than poured into a cup. It runs about fifty cents over the standard cup and it is the reason people photograph the order.

Jacqueline Nguyen opened the first store near the Renton waterfront in 2020, originally as a tea and juice bar, and rebranded as the coffee side grew. The Hanoi Coffee, Vietnamese coffee finished with a rich egg cream, is the one to order. Beside it sit a coconut cream coffee with salted coconut creme, a classic and a Saigon Viet coffee, a Viet coffee frappe with salted caramel cream and a matcha creme coffee. Milk teas, flower teas, longan iced tea, crafted lemonades and boba fill out a long board.

Know the shape of the place before you go, because it is not a cafe. This is a take out counter inside The Bristol at Southport: you order on a kiosk, collect at the counter, and there is essentially nowhere to sit beyond a small bench. The storefront is easy to miss from the narrow street, and street parking is tight enough that the multi level garage is the better plan.

What it does have is position. It is a few minutes on foot from Gene Coulon Memorial Beach Park, which makes it a genuinely good stop to collect a drink and walk the waterfront with it. The only other location is in Las Vegas, at the Grand Canal Shoppes.