Café V now serves fried chicken
Café V, the coffee shop at 7131 Little River Turnpike in Annandale, has added fried chicken and beer to the menu.
While continuing to serve high-end coffee and related hot and iced drinks and pastries, the café now houses a bb.q Chicken franchise.
“bb.q” stands for “best of the best quality,” not barbeque.
All chicken at bb.q is trimmed, brined for 24 hours, marinated twice, physically tenderized without chemicals, and fried lightly in olive oil at a low temperature.
“The result is chicken that’s very juicy and soft inside and crispy on the outside,” says franchisee and Café V owner Steve Lee. “We’re serving the best-quality chicken anywhere.”
Diners can choose a spicy “secret sauce” or another hot or mild sauce. The menu includes a whole or half chicken and boneless or bone-in thighs or wings.
bb.q Chicken also offers rice bowls, dumplings, three types of ddeok-bokki (a rice cake dish), and other items. According to Lee, the chicken fried rice has more chicken than rice.
The Korean bb.q restaurant chain has some 4,600 locations worldwide and more than 260 in the United States, including 10 in Northern Virgina.
Café V had temporarily taken some of its sandwiches off the menu to focus on starting bb.q Chicken, but plans to eventually bring them back. As of now, breakfast sandwiches are available on weekends.
When Steve and Victoria Lee opened Café V in 2022, they wanted to create a place for local residents to hang out. That has happened, as the café is often full of people meeting up for coffee and working on laptops for hours. In fact, Lee says, two people who started writing books there have now finished them.
People mostly drink coffee in the mornings, so Steve hopes adding chicken and beer to the mix to draw more people throughout the day and evening.
9 responses to “Café V now serves fried chicken”
Leave a reply
I can understand why the owners wish to add other items to increase sales in the afternoon, but i’m wondering if you may also change the kinds of customers that patronize Café V? Personally, I am a little disappointed in this addition. I really liked (and patronized from pretty much Cafe V’s opening) the idea of a well-designed attractive coffee shop with excellent teas and coffee and pastries. I don’t really look forward to smelling fried chicken on my visits. I believe it changes the entire atmosphere of the café, sadly making it just one more of the dozens of chicken vendors in Annandale instead of the unique coffee house venue it had become.
i agree. i have been there many times for coffee, but do not want to smell like fried chicken. Don’t care for this addition at all. They had been working on offering sandwiches, wish they had gone this route.
I have been a big fan and supporter of Cafe V, all the kind people who work there, and I wish them the best, but I agree. I very much miss the scones and simple pastries (the new ones are all much more elaborate and/or decadent than I am ever looking for in the morning), the breakfast sandwiches, the simple lunch sandwiches (chicken salad was so good), even the old non-digital menu board that was not like every other Korean bakery/cafe’s and felt quieter and calmer. I was also disappointed to see the installation of a large television along with all the digital displays. Again, I wish Cafe V success and I understand the need to drive more business throughout the day, but these changes have reduced how frequently I stop by in the morning and make me less likely to come by later in the day.
I like everyhing about it’s convenient because i live in the area.
Well, although I see the what the acronym means now, it’s a little misleading as one would def first think BBQ stands for barbecue. I do hope things go well for this new concept and wish them well. I’ll be visiting soon.
Husband and I went in and were disappointed they no longer sell their delicious scones. I’m sorry but I want pastries/sweets with my coffee not fried chicken.
My friend and I stopped in after the renovation and were disappointed that they have stopped selling their scones and breakfast sandwiches. The pastries were fine but nothing special. The staff is always very welcoming and helpful but I think we’re going to try somewhere else for our morning coffee. It’s surprising to think that the owners thought Annandale needed another fried chicken restaurant. It was a really sweet little cafe and always seemed very busy, and the scones were delicious.
What a relief. We finally have fried chicken in the neigborhood.
>”All chicken at bb.q is trimmed, brined for 24 hours, marinated twice, physically tenderized without chemicals, and fried lightly in olive oil at a low temperature.”
I wasn’t sold, but seed-oil free Korean fried chicken has piqued my interest.