It took roughly 300 matchas, six months of weekend pop-ups, and a stone mill hauled back from Japan.
Emeri, the rotating matcha bar that built a big cult following with weekend pop-ups in South Granville, opens its first permanent storefront on Main Street in Mount Pleasant on June 20.
The shop sits at 2833 Main Street, in a space that used to be a Goldilocks bakery.
Co-owners Justin Ng and Josephine Au gave us a preview before the grand opening, and the detail they have packed into the room is hard to miss.
The space leans more lounge-y than a typical laptop cafe, with low cushy olive-green seats and bar seats instead of work tables.
Justin shared with Noms Magazine that they specifically got input from their tea farm partners in Japan on the new space.
Their first renders leaned green and wood, but the pair scrapped that look as the feedback they got was that it was reading a little too Starbucks-esque, going neutral with soft clay walls so the green pops only where it counts.
Those pops are deliberate, from the plants to the dark muted green and wood kettles the tea farmers themselves picked over the standard black ones.
Three photos the pair shot at different Japanese tea farms in 2025 hang on one wall, tracing matcha from field to mill.
On the counter sits a mill itself, a real stone grinder they hauled home from Nara, made by Kano-san, one of Japan’s top stone-mill makers.
Part of the stitch of Emeri is on education.
Justin shared that traditional stone milling alone takes over an hour to grind a single ounce of matcha. ONE ounce.
Although most matcha producers have moved onto electric stone milling, being able to provide a more hands on or visual representation of the matcha process is what Emeri is looking to do.
And a key component of Emeri is helping you “find your matcha”, not simply selling you the best one.
Like at the pop-ups, the lineup spans regions and profiles, some nuttier and sweeter, others more umami and bitter.
People already talk about coffee and wine this way, Josephine told us, and she wants matcha to earn the same respect.
The menu is built for exploring, with simple visuals flagging how light or dark each matcha runs, so chat with the team to find one that suits your palate.
Every drink is made to order, allowing you to see the entire process: from sifting to reduce any clumps to hand-whisking to the final pour on top of your choice of milk.
We tried the Roku, their recommended matcha latte and the lighter, sweeter end of the lineup, and it is the cup we would hand a matcha skeptic, smooth and mellow with sweetness instead of a grassy sip.
The slightly deeper, more intense Hinata is there if you want bolder, and the opal hojicha held its own, warm and toasty in that nutty, roasted way.
And like their summer pop-ups, Justin shared with Noms Magazine that they’ll be rotating the matchas used on the menu.
However, that won’t happen until they get fully settled in with the store and team.
He and Josephine did tease that they have already figured out the year’s rotating line up and is excited to showcase other regions and partners.
New for the storefront is soft serve, which took months of testing and, by Justin’s account, a lot of ice cream.
You can get it as a lighter matcha, a stronger one, or a twist of both.
For now Emeri is the only matcha shop that is offering different versions of matcha ice cream in strength and powder.
And if you look closely at the menu, the powders used for the soft serve are actually different from the ones in the drinks.
We got the twist, and it is the move, with each spoonful carrying both at once, the lighter, mellow side set against the stronger, more intense one.
Pricing-wise, it’s not too different from what you’d find at other matcha-focused cafes.
Matcha lattes run $7.25 to $8.75, hojicha lattes $6.25 to $7.15, soft serve $7.95 to $8.65, and ceremonial koicha up to $17.
You can also take home a tin or gear, and a planned workshop will eventually let customers mill their own from tencha leaves.
Vancouver is not short on matcha bars, but the care here, from the stone mill on the counter to drinks this dialled in, is what nudges Emeri ahead of the pack.
Emeri joins other recently opened food spots in Vancouver like Alfa Tea Robson, No Ne Kitchen and Bar, and Little Pisces Olympic Village.
For more new and upcoming food spots in Metro Vancouver, take a peek at our tracker here, and subscribe to our weekly newsletter here.
Address: 2833 Main Street, Vancouver, B.C.