MEET THE OWNERS OF CASSIDY’S CORNER CAFÉ OF LONG BEACH
By John Grossi
Photos by Monique Kuhlman
Seneith (Seth) Norng and Sovirny (Virny) Preston can’t wait to meet you! They’re the brother and sister team who just opened the new Cassidy’s Corner Café of Long Beach on Spring Street. Their enthusiasm and spirit is infectious. And their story is pretty cool too.
Virny and Seth are Long Beach born and raised. Children of Cambodian immigrants, they attended Bancroft, Poly High, and CSULB before starting their careers; Seth in mechanical engineering and Virny in public health.
Each married and started a family here in Long Beach, never really thinking about making any changes career-wise. Until one day, when Virny saw a post on Instagram from her friend Joe Ung, who started the original Cassidy’s Corner Café in Lakewood. He was looking for friends he could interest in licensing his brand to create their own business.
That post struck a spark with Virny. She spontaneously decided to ask Joe for details then reached out to her brother to see if he had any interest in partnering. It didn’t seem real, it seemed like a long shot, but she was just so curious.
To her surprise, brother Seth jumped at the idea. He loved it.
Less than a year later, this brother-sister duo - who had never run a business before or even worked in the food industry - were opening the official Cassidy’s Corner Café of Long Beach on Spring Street and Los Coyotes Diagonal.
A complete career 180 for both… and they’re absolutely loving it.
“Of Long Beach”
This new location of Cassidy’s Corner on Spring Street is the official “Cassidy’s Corner Café of Long Beach” but it is not a franchise. Virny and Seth pay a licensing fee to use the name and recipes from the extremely popular original location, but how they operate the business, decisions they make on food and drinks, and anything else they want to change about the business is up to them.
For that reason, you may find different items, different prices, and other variances from other locations, and any coupons and discounts don’t transfer from store-to-store. With that said, these owners were introduced to the concept as regular customers first, so all the classics and favorites remain on the menu.
Community And Culture
Virny and Seth may not have grown up in the bagel business, but they definitely know about “creating culture” from their careers. Now as captains of their own ship, their goal is to foster the best culture for their employees (most of whom attend CSULB or LBCC) so that they in turn pass the good vibes along to their customers.
As active members in their church (First Lutheran of Long Beach as kids, and now Bethany Lutheran as adults) and with their children’s little league (Lakewood Village), the siblings have always been strongly engaged in community. But they had no idea how much community spirit existed in Long Beach until they opened the shop.
“Growing up here… you know your classmates, and then you know who you work with, but until you’re [a business] within the community, you don’t realize how many people are working to build this community,” explained Seth. “I’ve met more people in the last five months than I did in 16 years at my other job.”
“I love that we get to connect with all these community organizations now,” said Virny. “Like we donate all our leftover bagels at the end of the day to the Assistance League of Long Beach. Now we get to be part of the ecosystem of organizations helping each other.”
“My favorite part is meeting so many customers and hearing their stories,” said Seth.
The Food And Drink
On the day they opened, one of the first customers Virny and Seth met said he liked to judge a place by their house coffee. If he liked it, he’d be back.
Safe to say, he’s been back often. The sister and brother weren’t worried about what he’d think, because they already knew their coffee was above average. They partner with Common Room Roasters in Long Beach and grind fresh, delicious, local coffee every day. Just one of many “above the norm” steps they take to ensure freshness and quality over anything else. They get their pastrami from local butcher Big Brian’s Meats, the bagels are made fresh every morning, the list goes on…
As far as the rest of the menu, it’s pretty easy for Virny and Seth to recommend almost everything, seeing as how they were both regular customers before opening their own shop.
“The biggest thing that everyone who’s been to a Cassidy’s Corner knows is that the bagels are fresh every day, and they’re big and soft inside, like East Coast bagels. The Joe’s Special is our most popular breakfast sandwich and the signature drink is the “4-2-1” which is a double-brewed vanilla coffee, with vanilla syrup and half and half. At our location, we also have a nitro 4-2-1 on tap.”
While many people are familiar with breakfast at Cassidy’s Corner Café, customers should realize they also have an extensive lunch menu with 12 delicious bagel sandwiches. Virny’s favorite is the “Cassidy’s Club” (pictured) while Seth recommends “The Studebaker’’ on tomato basil or the “Maddy” which is the pastrami sandwich.
If you’re craving coffee, delicious bagels for lunch or breakfast, and a positive local atmosphere, give the new Cassidy’s Corner Café of Long Beach a try and tell them LB908 sent you!
