From Vietnam to Canada

Since Louis had experiences working for multinational companies back home in Vietnam, he was able to quickly adapt his skills to the new way of life in Canada. Being both a realtor and someone who worked in settlement services, Louis was able to connect with his local community, especially with new immigrants who were looking to settle into their new daily lives in Canada. He was motivated by the fact that he didn’t want other newcomers to make the same mistakes he did when he first arrived in Canada.

Although he enjoyed the peaceful yet busy working life in Charlottetown, his teenage children in particular really wanted to move to a big city after some experience in places like Toronto. So they packed up their belongings into their family van and took 11 days to drive 6500 km across Canada to Vancouver. Louis notes it was a very memorable trip as they stopped in every province, exploring many different cities. Despite his children having some connections in Toronto, being on the West Coast also allowed them to be a little closer to Vietnam since they still have a lot of ties to their hometown both for personal and business-related affairs.

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Bringing Vietnamese Coffee to the World

Although Vietnam is the second-largest coffee exporter in the world, very few people are aware of this fact. While Louis was still in PEI, one of the newcomers he met was also from Vietnam, and the two talked extensively about coffee, the industry, and how to bring Vietnamese coffee to the rest of the world. He supported this friend in starting his own coffee shop in Charlottetown, and when him and his family moved to Vancouver, they too decided to establish their own Vietnamese coffee brand on the West Coast.

As Louis looked around Vancouver for a space for their new brand, he found a famous Japanese bakery in Vancouver operated by Hitomi San, a Japanese Baker. Louis and his wife envisioned a new cafe concept that combined Vietnamese coffee and Japanese pastries - the “best of the two countries”.

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“The Vietnam that we wanted to bring to the world was not a traditional Vietnam but a new, modern Vietnam. We are the pioneers who bring the new concept of Vietnamese coffee, the fusion coffee called “Creative Coffee”... We bring the Ube Haze Latte, Pandan…Asian ingredients combined with a Vietnamese coffee.”

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“Broye” is the name of a tea and coffee farm in Central Highlands, Vietnam. It is a place built by the French colony more than 100 years ago, and continues to be one of the best places to grow tea and coffee. Thus, the name “Broye Cafe” is inspired by the name of the land, but also to appreciate the French who brought coffee to Vietnam.