World’s Largest Fast-Food Chain Opens First U.S. Outlet in NYC

Mixue Ice Cream & Tea, a Chinese ice cream and boba chain whose more than 45,000 locations make it the largest fast-food chain on the planet, is set to open its first outlet in the U.S. at 266 Canal Street in Tribeca, Commercial Observer has learned.

The chain signed a 10-year lease with landlord Nachama Realty for 2,100 square feet at street level, according to Josh Augenbaum of Augenbaum Realty, who represented the landlord along with Jack Khaski and Albert Manopla from KSR. Jordan Kaplan with CBRE represented Mixue.

The asking rent was $165 per square foot.

The full name of Mixue, which is owned by Mixue Group, is Mixue Bingcheng, which means “Honey Snow Ice City,” according to The Associated Press. Most of its outlets, around 40,000, are in China, with another 2,600 throughout Indonesia. The company’s stores are almost all franchised, and popular Mixue offerings include creamy mango boba, mango oats jasmine tea and coconut jelly milk tea, according to AP.

Mixue Group went public on the Hong Kong exchange in March of this year and reported a 43 percent rise in profits for the first half of 2025, with a net profit equivalent to $376.1 million over that time, according to the Wall Street Journal. 

Mixue, which was founded in 1997 as a single drinks kiosk by university student Zhang Hongchao in Zhengzhou, China, according to Bloomberg, was named to the Time100 list of most influential companies in June of this year. Its entry noted that the company overtook McDonald’s and Starbucks as the world’s largest chain in terms of store count in 2024.

Bloomberg said that Hongchao and his brother, Zhang Hongfu, who joined the business around 2007, had a combined fortune of $8.1 billion as of February of this year. 

Representatives of Mixue Group could not be reached for comment.

Larry Getlen can be reached at lgetlen@commercialobserver.com.