Q Specialty Coffee, the Laurel Heights cafe that often has a line down California Street, is opening a second San Francisco location. KRON4 reports that the cafe announced on social media it will soft open on Tuesday, Nov. 3 at 405 Howard St., Suite 140, in SoMa.
The original
Q opened last October at 3490 California St. Owner Cyrus Shen set out to appeal to coffee nerds, the San Francisco Standard reported. The shop roasts 10 varieties on site and offers detailed notes on each bean's origin and taste. It is also known for matcha "cloud" drinks topped with flavored foam, including a strawberry matcha cloud and a yuzu matcha air cream.
"Seeing the response to our coffee, matcha, and especially our cloud drinks gave us the confidence that it was the right time to grow," Shen told the Standard.
A tea-first downtown shop
The new cafe is on the ground floor of the 10-story Orrick office building. The original Q focuses on coffee, but the Howard Street shop will focus on tea. "We will have stone mills in the shop so customers can see the process of how tencha leaves become freshly ground matcha," Shen said. The Standard noted that freshly milled matcha is rare in the city, since most shops buy it already ground. The new menu will still include coffee, but it won't be roasted on site.
Part of a downtown cafe wave
Q joins a run of recent downtown cafe openings, including Spro, Painted Leopard and Andytown. The Standard linked that trend to the AI boom and stricter return-to-office rules bringing more workers back. Shen also runs Poke Origin in the Sunset and Shaking Crab in Daly City. "We believe in downtown and want to be part of bringing more energy, businesses, and people back to the area," he said.