Philly’s first Kyo Matcha draws long lines in Chinatown

The lines are long. The branding is adorable. The drinks are bright green, as are the lacy swirls of matcha-seasoned soft serve. This is the formula for Kyo Matcha, which opened in August in Chinatown.

The same trappings can be found at both Matcha Panda Cafe, which opened in 2022, and Matcha Cafe Maiko, which opened in 2023 — years before high-end Japanese tea became so in-demand that suppliers couldn’t keep up. But there’s something a little curious about Kyo Matcha, a chain that is also known as Kyoto Matcha, with locations in Maryland, Pittsburgh, Virginia, and Massachusetts, as well as in Spain, Vietnam, and Turkey.

Indeed, the students who work the front of house are just as bubbly as the ones who serve similar ice creams and tea drinks at the other matcha-focused shops in Chinatown. But in the kitchen at Kyo Matcha, a small crew of older Chinese chefs who previously worked at dumpling stores or preparing food in retirement homes are painstakingly making matcha and ube crepes, then layering them into cakes or rolling them into desserts by hand.

The franchise is a project that brought two mainland Chinese couples into business together: Tom Kang, 34, and Danya Li, 30, who met studying hospitality at Temple University; and Alex An, 32, who also owns an international trading business, and Jing Xiong, 31, a UX lead designer.

Kang also owns and operates Stay at Luna, a collection of 10 apartment hotels mostly clustered around Chinatown. (There’s a Stay at Luna located above Kyo Matcha.)

Located on 11th Street between Race and Vine Streets, in the former Vietnam Palace space, Kyo Matcha is a little off Chinatown’s beaten path. “We felt that if we created a beautiful space and offered something a little different, it could become another reason for people to come to this part of Chinatown,” said Kang.

He became enamored with Kyo Matcha due to both its high-quality matcha powder and its menu, equally balanced between beverage and desserts.

And why did four young people choose to open a franchise instead of creating their own brand?

“Starting a brand from scratch is so hard,” said Li.

While menu items all have to be approved by Kyo Matcha’s corporate office, the business arrangement still leaves room for the owners to innovate as they develop desserts for Philly customers.

As at other beverage chains, you can specify your preferred level of sweetness when ordering a drink here. There’s only one option, a simple iced matcha, where you can try matcha unadulterated by milk or syrup, to appreciate its grassiness. All beverages are served cold.

The matcha trend shows no sign of abating, though global shortages persist as the tea’s leaves take four to five years to mature. The obsession with the bright green Japanese tea has manifested in a slew of matcha-driven beverages and desserts in Philly’s Chinatown, where there’s also been a wave of beverage shop openings.

Kyo Matcha opened the same week as Arch Street’s branch of Heytea, a Chinese brand operating over 4,000 locations worldwide. They join over a dozen tea-focused shops in the neighborhood.

But there still seems to be plenty of appetite for approachable matcha offerings. “Matcha is especially popular among younger customers, and we see a lot of students and younger professionals, but we’ve also seen families, tourists, Chinatown residents, and people who have never tried matcha,” said Kang.

Kyo Matcha, 222 N. 11th St., kyotomatcha.us. Hours: Noon to 10 p.m. Monday to Thursday, 11:30 a.m. to 10:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday