Nana’s Green Tea plans its first company-run U.S. flagship

Nana’s Green Tea announced April 25 that it plans a company-operated flagship in Pasadena, California, adding direct operation to a U.S. network that already includes franchised cafés.

The proposed site is at 45 N. Raymond Avenue. The company’s announcement leaves its opening date for a later update. Its claimed first is a company-operated U.S. flagship, not the brand’s arrival in the country.

Franchise expansion remains part of the plan. Nana’s listed intended openings in San Mateo in May, Meridian, Idaho, in June and Boston in July. Those are future schedules as of the announcement.

Pasadena’s proposed experience combines matcha drinks, parfaits and savory meals. A stainless-steel counter and restrained interior are part of its stated design. The offering gives the company a café encompassing several dining occasions, rather than a beverage counter alone. No store-level investment, expected sales or return target accompanied the announcement, so its financial contribution remains unquantified.

Seattle established an earlier local expression#

An original Eater Seattle report by Suzi Pratt, published November 27, 2018, describes a substantial U.S. café experience years earlier. It identified Jessmin Lau as the owner of the Denny Triangle shop at 1007 Stewart Street.

Pratt documented a concrete tea counter and a wooden seating structure conceived as a deconstructed Japanese tea house. The details showed a branded design language expressed through the particular Seattle space. The shop planned to open publicly on November 29, following reservations for a preview with limited hours.

The planned opening menu extended well beyond tea. The report described matcha and hojicha drinks, layered parfaits, pastries baked on site, rice dishes and chicken curries. Savory breakfast plans included pitas filled with salad and chicken karaage, tofu or salmon cutlet.

For a prospective operator, that history establishes the breadth of the concept already being attempted in a U.S. setting. Beverages, desserts and meals bring different preparation demands. They also create more than one reason to visit, without proving how much revenue any occasion ultimately contributed.

Training and sourcing preceded the planned flagship#

Nanaha, the brand’s Japanese parent, provided another operational example in its September 18, 2024, Broadway store report. The New York café had opened in March 2024 at 1250 Broadway in Manhattan’s NOMAD Tower, with 1,700 square feet and 70 seats.

The company said key members of the Broadway team traveled to Japan for store training. Major ingredients, including matcha and tea, came from Japan. Its explanation of quality depended on those staff and supplier connections, not simply on applying the brand name above the door.

Design followed a similar approach. Nanaha described benches incorporating wood and foundation stones reused from old Japanese homes, bringing physical materials into its interpretation of Japanese hospitality.

The company had established a North American headquarters in California in 2018 to strengthen its franchise structure. By September 2024 it was targeting 100 North American locations by 2030, an ambition rather than a count of open cafés. That earlier account shows the support work behind market expansion: training people, securing ingredients and developing spaces while building a franchise organization.