New drive-through brews popular Italian coffee
Lavazza, a popular Italian coffee, is now being served at a Villa Park drive-through coffee establishment.
Teodor Denev, who has an extensive background in hospitality management, opened Tiofi Coffee, at 105 E. North Ave. The entrepreneur, raised in Ruse, Bulgaria, grew up drinking Lavazza Italian coffee, which he says is the top selling coffee in Italy.
His new shop offers an array of coffee beverages as well as loose teas, fresh-fruit smoothies and milk shakes. A small cup of regular coffee sells for $1.39 while a flavored latte or a medium mocha goes for $2.99. The orange mocha and mango mocha have been popular, selling for $3.59 for a medium.
"I use Lavazza beans for all the coffee drinks," Denev said.
Lavazza, based in Turin, Italy, is a family-operated company. The company, which started in the early 1900s is known for mixing coffee beans from different parts of the world. Denev took an extensive brewing course at Lavazza's corporate training center in Bulgaria.
"Customers who have not tasted it before notice the unique taste right away. It's a smooth coffee with no bitterness," Denev said.
The drive-through shop has been vacant for the past two years before Lavazza took it over, renovated it and brought it up to code. He said he researched the coffee concept for about a year and decided with his initial investment that a drive-through would work best. He said the drive-through concept is wildly popular in Washington State and Oregon.
Denev earned his bachelor's degree in hospitality management in Ohio after immigrating to the U.S. about seven years ago. He then moved to this area while earning his master's degree at Roosevelt University in Chicago. He worked at the Ritz Carlton for a while before launching his own business. "I've always wanted to start my own business," he said.
The Elmhurst resident admits that it's not an easy time to launch a business, but added that things are picking up with word-of-mouth. He believes the hardest part in starting the business was doing the research and finding the right location. He added that it was tough meeting all the building requirements and bringing the business up to code.
The shop is open from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Friday, 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday and 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday.
Kim Mikus covers small business and retail. She welcomes comments at (847) 427-4567 and kmikus@dailyherald.com.