New Williamsburg Café Will Serve Kyoto Matcha In A Japanese-Inspired Garden

WILLIAMSBURG— The Moss & Green, a plant shop and botanical design business, will open a new flagship between Bedford Avenue and Berry Street, on Nov. 30.

The space will combine a Japanese matcha café with an immersive botanical studio at 169 North Ninth St.

The café will serve matcha sourced from Uji, Kyoto, along with original drinks featuring warabi mochi, a traditional Japanese confection made from bracken fern starch.

The botanical studio will feature handcrafted kokedama, a Japanese art form in which plants grow in sculptural balls of soil wrapped in moss, as well as curated houseplants and Japanese vessels.

The menu will include several signature drinks:

• Moss Garden: A matcha latte with kuromitsu warabi mochi.
• Kyoto Temple: A hojicha latte with kuromitsu hojicha warabi mochi.
• After The Rain: Earl Grey tea with matcha and Earl Grey warabi mochi.
• Ume Summer Tonic: Sencha tea, Japanese pickled plum and tonic water.

Unlike the chewy, rice-based mochi familiar to many Americans, warabi mochi has a soft, jelly-like texture. It is traditionally served chilled, often with roasted soybean powder or dark sugar syrup.

The new location will also feature a mix of Kyoto and Western antiques, natural materials and design elements inspired by traditional Japanese architecture.

Plans call for a gradual transformation of the outdoor space into a Japanese garden inspired by the temple gardens of Kyoto.

Japanese-born designer May Carroll founded The Moss & Green in 2019 through pop-ups and markets before opening a permanent Williamsburg storefront in 2021 and expanding into botanical design and collaborations with Chanel, Le Labo and Vogue.

“For a long time, I imagined a place where people could gather beneath a large tree, drink delicious Japanese tea, and talk together,” Carroll said.

In addition to the café and botanical collection, the business will offer interior plant design consultations for residential, hospitality and commercial spaces.

Carroll plans to develop the outdoor garden in phases, with the longer-term goal of creating a Japanese-inspired retreat.