Palo Alto's Tea Shops Open in Months. Its Croissant Bakeries Take Years.

Palo Alto's two downtowns are each getting a new set of cafes this fall, and they're getting them on very different schedules. Around University Avenue, Lytton, Waverley and Ramona, the new tenants are mostly tea and matcha shops. Several are already pouring, and the ones still pending have been in the works for months. On California Avenue, the next wave is croissants. Croissante has been headed for 321 California Ave. since late 2024. Arsicault's opening on Cambridge Avenue has slipped into 2027. Backyard Brew, a longtime Cal Ave coffee stop, has been closed since February 2025.

Much of that gap comes down to the spaces themselves. A matcha bar moving into a former bubble tea shop starts from a different place than a bakery moving into a former dive bar or a building that just went up. What follows is the map as it stands on Oct. 12, 2026: what's open, what's announced and what's still waiting.

Downtown's tea row, as of mid-October

Maruwu Seicha came first. It soft-opened Oct. 20, 2024, with matcha and hojicha drinks, cheese tarts, soft serve and gelato, as The Almanac reported. A year later, Goodthing Coffee soft-opened on Ramona in the old Wood Oven Pizza space. It serves light-roast coffee and tea, pistachio Einspänners, a matcha version among them, along with Japanese soufflé cheesecakes, cookies and canelés, according to Palo Alto Online.

Rikyu is the newest of the open shops. It comes from the team behind Hiroshi, the Japanese fine-dining restaurant in Los Altos. Founder Daji Uehara told the Weekly, "I don't think there's anything like this in Palo Alto, and if there was something like this, I would personally enjoy it." The menu goes past drinks to sandos and chirashi. Strawberry matcha and an ebi-katsu sando are two examples. Rikyu's site lists hours of 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Saturday and 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Sunday.

Why the drinks side moves faster

Rikyu's timeline was short. In February 2026, the plan was a mid-February soft opening. By April, The Almanac was reporting mid-May, pending final inspection. In June, Palo Alto Online listed it in a group of six new businesses that had opened or were about to. That's a slip of a few months, not a few years.

Bonbon Matcha is moving even faster. Founder Emily Niu opened the first location in Cupertino this year and is already expanding to Palo Alto, in the Waverley Street space that used to be Gong Cha. In August, Niu told the East Bay Times she was aiming for late September or early October. By mid-September the target was early to mid-October. Expect strawberry, mango and yuzu matcha lattes, toppings like sea salt cheese foam and strawberry cloud, matcha tiramisu, and slices of Basque cheesecake. As of Oct. 12, the opening hasn't been confirmed.

A tea shop replacing a tea shop starts close to the finish line. The same thing happened on El Camino Real. Owner Stuart Bai turned his mochi doughnut shop, Te'Amo, into Ryokucha Cafe at 4131 El Camino Real and soft-opened it in August 2025. It serves matcha and espresso drinks with Straus soft serve.

Demand helps too. In 2025, Palo Alto Online reported that Japan's matcha production roughly tripled from 2010 to 2023, while the number of Japanese tea farmers fell from 53,000 in 2000 to just over 12,000 in 2020, citing Food & Wine. Tariffs added more strain on importers. The shops kept coming anyway. Bai said his manager, Yuki Oyaizu, has a personal relationship with a farmer in Shizuoka, Japan, and that a business Ryokucha's size buys small enough quantities to stay stocked.

Downtown is also getting international chains. Auntea Jenny is a Shanghai-based brand with more than 10,000 stores worldwide. Its Peninsula debut is planned for 328 University Ave., with a second location coming to San Mateo. The menu centers on fruit teas and milk teas, like the Classic Mango Grapefruit Sago and the Green Grape Jasmine Milk Tea. The Almanac places the opening within a wider Peninsula expansion of Chinese tea brands that includes Mixue, HeyTea, Charlie's Tea and Molly Tea. Auntea Jenny's late-September target has passed. As of Oct. 12, its location page still lists Palo Alto as "Coming Soon."

Two more downtown cafes have no dates yet. Taste of Anatolia plans to serve Turkish coffee, tea, breakfast and sweets in the old Round Table Pizza at 263 University. Mints & Honey plans brunch, coffee, matcha, fruit tea and milk tea at 728 Emerson.

California Avenue's pastry clock

The Cal Ave bakeries have moved on a slower schedule. Here is how the dates have shifted:

1. December 2024. Croissante is announced for 321 California Ave., the former Antonio's Nut House, a dive bar that closed in 2020.
2. December 2025. Owner Sean Kang tells The Almanac there has been "a huge delay" and expects to open in late 2026. The same roundup has Arsicault opening in September or October 2026 at 388 Cambridge Ave.
3. September 2026. Croissante's target is late November. Arsicault's moves to the first quarter of 2027. The 388 Cambridge project site also says 2027.

If Croissante hits its late-November target, it will open almost two years after it was announced. Neither bakery had an easy space to start from. One is turning a bar into a bakery. The other is going into a new mixed-use building near California Avenue.

The pastries should differ, though. Croissante was founded in Santa Clara in 2023 and opened in Los Gatos in 2024. It's known for cube-shaped croissants, croissants filled with fresh mango, and danishes filled with spinach artichoke dip. Arsicault, founded in San Francisco in 2015 by CEO Armando Lacayo, sticks to classic flavors like chocolate, almond, and ham and cheese. The Cambridge shop will be its fourth bakery and its first outside San Francisco. It will carry about 15 pastries at a time, plus sandwiches on house-made baguettes. It will be mostly takeout, with little or no seating inside and 12 to 20 seats outside. The two shops will be about a street apart.

The Cal Ave coffee stop still waiting on permits

The third Cal Ave project is a reopening. Backyard Brew at 444 California Ave. is known for its casual outdoor seating and drinks like its Nutella mocha. It has been temporarily closed since February 2025 while it works through permitting. In The Almanac's September roundup, the owner said permitting had taken longer than expected and that he hoped to reopen about two months after permits are issued. No later update has surfaced.

Taken together, the three Cal Ave projects have been waiting a long time. Croissante was announced in December 2024. Backyard Brew closed in February 2025. Arsicault won't open until 2027. Each has been held up by something different: a full conversion, new construction and permitting.

Where to get a cup this week

As of Oct. 12, 2026, these are the confirmed options. Bonbon Matcha could join them any day:

• Rikyu, 121 Lytton Ave. Matcha drinks, sandos and chirashi. Open 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Saturday and 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Sunday. Online ordering is available.
• Maruwu Seicha, 250 University Ave. Matcha and hojicha drinks, cheese tarts, soft serve and gelato.
• Goodthing Coffee, 532 Ramona St. Pistachio Einspänners, a matcha one included, and soufflé cheesecakes.
• Ryokucha Cafe, 4131 El Camino Real. Matcha and espresso drinks with Straus soft serve, a drive south of downtown.

For pastries on California Avenue, the soonest possible opening is Croissante's late-November target. Arsicault is set for the first quarter of 2027.

If you'd like to know what's going into the storefronts near a home you're considering on University Avenue or Cal Ave, Christopher Mogensen follows these blocks one storefront at a time. Let's Connect.