Café Matcha

Café Matcha will not print "ceremonial grade" on a tin, on the grounds that nobody regulates the phrase, and lets the hand-whisked bowl carry the claim instead. Josh Zad's crew is after something plainer than a tea ceremony here: matcha as ordinary as the bottomless pot of coffee it grew up next to.

Coffee is one line on this board: cold brew at $6, or the Green & Black at $8, matcha poured over that cold brew with vanilla, half and half and shaved chocolate. No roaster is named for it, and there is no espresso machine in the room.

Navy tile in orange grout wraps the storefront and turns up again behind the bar, where the counter front is laid in cream, apricot and cobalt squares over a butter-yellow floor. Walnut panelling runs the banquette wall above olive and blue vinyl, with aluminum-banded tables on chrome pedestals and a framed sign that reads "Take your time".