A restaurant that Cayce has been waiting on for a while now welcomed its first customers last week.

Vietnamese sandwich shop Little Bee Bun Mee Company softly opened June 15, serving its first meals with little fanfare. According to a post on social media, the restaurant was “testing recipes and finalizing the menu,” with a release announcing July 11 as Little Bee’s official opening date.

Little Bee is located at 904 Knox Abbott Dr. and is attached to and owned by the same family as Duke’s Pad Thai, the popular Thai street food restaurant and noodle bar that was opened in 2017 by Chris and Noi Souvanna. An interior doorway connects the two restaurants within a small strip mall near 9th Street that also includes Carolina Western Wear.

“We wanted to continue to add more cultural dining to Cayce through one of our favorite dishes, banh mi sandwiches,” owner Noi Souvanna is quoted. “The last few years have been a whirlwind, surviving a pandemic, raising two boys and running a successful business; we all just felt like busy bees which led us to naming Little Bee.  Our passion for fast-casual food fuels the other busy bees out there to have a family-made meal and get on their way to their busy lives.”

The shop has been in the works for a while now, with a sign being installed above the location for more than a year and the space inside appearing to be finished for roughly the same amount of time. 

The release notes that the owners “have always been committed to providing the community with high-quality and delicious food. Their passion for sharing family recipes and teaching their two boys about running a business led them to open Duke’s.”

“With Chris as the mastermind behind the creative dishes and Noi expertly managing operations, they have created a casual gathering place known for its exceptional food,” the release states. "Their newest venture, Little Bee Bun Mee, continues their legacy of fast-casual culinary excellence.”

The menu, as it appeared during the restaurant’s soft opening, focuses on the banh mi, a Vietnamese sandwich on a crispy baguette that is typically filled with meats (such as ham and pork sausage), cilantro, cucumber and pickled vegetables. 

Little Bee centers its sandwich selection on the more traditional Queen Bee (with Vietnamese ham, sausage and roast pork) but spreads out to less-traditional options like the Sweet Honey Chicken (with grilled chicken breast glazed in sweet honey teriyaki sauce) and the Bulgogi Cheesesteak (which replaces the meat in the traditional American sandwich with Korean-style marinated beef and adds cilantro, Kimchi sauce and spicy mayo).

The menu also spans Bun-Mee Hot Dogs, tacos, sushi rolls, poke, salads and sides such as Asian Mac Salad and edamame.

The fun and cheeky branding for the restaurant focuses on the slogan, “Show us your bunz.”

If plans hold, Little Bee won’t be the only family-owned restaurant expanding along the busy Cayce thorofare soon, with popular northeast Columbia Mexican eatery Tacos Nayarit having announced in January its intentions to open a location at 1100 Knox Abbott Dr. by spring/summer 2023.