Q Specialty Coffee, the year-old Laurel Heights cafe known for its viral matcha cloud drinks, is opening a second San Francisco location downtown at the end of October. The new spot will be on Howard Street, with tea taking center stage on the menu.
Owner Cyrus Shen opened the original Q Specialty Coffee at 3490 California St. in October 2025, and according to The San Francisco Standard, business there has been strong enough to justify the expansion. Shen told the outlet that the response to the coffee, matcha, and cloud drinks gave the company confidence to grow, adding that “San Francisco is our home and Q wants to grow with the city.”
The Laurel Heights flagship built its reputation on coffee education as much as caffeine. The Standard's reporting notes that the original location roasts 10 varieties on-site and provides staff descriptions of coffee origins and tasting notes for customers, alongside menu staples like the strawberry matcha cloud and yuzu matcha air cream. That emphasis on roasting and sourcing traces back to Shen's own credentials: he studied coffee in Japan and across Asia and earned certifications from Bay Area coffee educator Willem Boot, according to Postcard. A Q Grader license, the credential Shen holds, is administered by the Coffee Quality Institute and requires passing 19 complete sensory and cupping tests — a certification held by about 4,000 Q-graders worldwide, per Tastify.
A Downtown Menu Built Around Matcha, Not Roasting
A Downtown Menu Built Around Matcha, Not Roasting The new location will center on tea, featuring stone mills for freshly grinding tencha leaves into matcha, though coffee will still appear on the menu.
The original Laurel Heights cafe's fast launch relied on a different kind of hardware: two zero-emission electric Bellwether Shop Roasters installed directly on the customer counter, letting staff roast green beans in 12-minute batches without the gas-line venting permits a traditional setup would require, according to Bellwether Coffee. That flagship menu also includes single-origin pour-overs with posted cup scores as high as 94 points, a $7.95 Hojicha Velvet Cloud, and sliced mille crêpes imported from Lady M, as Axios reported earlier this year. Hoodline covered the cafe's zero-emission roasting debut in November, when the Willem Boot mentorship and matcha lineup were already drawing early buzz.
The Building Q Is Moving Into
The building Q Specialty Coffee is moving into has its own résumé. It spans 521,555 square feet of office space with ground-floor retail and earned LEED Platinum certification in 2010, according to LoopNet.
From Street Toast to Specialty Tea
Shen's path to coffee didn't start with coffee at all. Toast 'N Egg, a Korean street-toast sandwich shop, is among Shen's previous ventures. Shen has also previously launched Sugoi Sushi in the Mission, while currently running Poke Origin in the Sunset and Shaking Crab in Daly City.
With the downtown location set to open at the end of October, Q Specialty Coffee is expanding beyond Laurel Heights with a menu that includes coffee and tea drinks.
