8 July 31 - August 6, 2025 miaminewtimes.com | browardpalmbeach.com NEW TIMES | MUSIC | CAFE | CULTURE | NIGHT+DAY | NEWS | LETTERS | CONTENTS | Month XX–Month XX, 2008 miaminewtimes.com MIAMI NEW TIMES | MUSIC | CAFE | FILM | ART | STAGE | NIGHT+DAY | METRO | RIPTIDE | LETTERS | CONTENTS | Eastern Promise Little River’s about to get an authentic Asian bakery/café. BY OLEE FOWLER H elen Kim and Lea Tran are transforming the Little River space that housed Oori Bake- shop into Mattari Suru — what they hope will be the first “real” Asian café in Miami. Kim is the baker behind Oori, and Tran runs the Kitty Boba beverage pop-up. As first-gener- ation immigrants from cities with thriving Asian food scenes, Kim from Atlanta and Tran from Houston, they’ve spent years searching Miami for the kind of café culture they knew back home. “It’s really hard to find stuff that we connect to, specifically in South Florida,” says Kim, who moved here from Atlanta. “I haven’t seen an actual Asian café or bakery concept in Miami-Dade that’s done in this style.” Tran agrees. In Houston, she had access to a huge Chinatown, while Kim knew Atlanta’s thriving Korean town. “I hear constantly that Miami doesn’t have enough Asian influence. So we really want to bring that to Miami.” “We want to open the first real Asian cafe in Miami,” Kim says. The collaboration started at the Surfside Farmers Market, where Tran began purchas- ing pastries from Kim for her boba pop-up. When they met, it was a brief encounter. About a year later, when Tran was specifically seeking Asian baked goods for her business, she went looking for Kim and eventually tracked her down. “I was actually looking for her,” Tran ex- plains. They started sharing products, and the conversation naturally turned to opening a cafe together. The timing worked perfectly: Kim was looking for a partner to help operate a cafe business, while Tran was seeking a space. The name came from Tran’s husband dur- ing a group text brainstorming session. “He texted ‘Mattari Suru,’ a Japanese phrase that loosely translates to ‘chill out so long you get bored,’” Tran recalls. Kim launched Oori Bake- shop as a pandemic pop-up before moving to the Little River brick-and-mortar, while Tran started Kitty Boba in 2023. “During the pan- demic, it was like the wild west — we were just throwing things at the wall to see what stuck,” Kim explains. “Now, it’s more structured.” Kim describes the food as “Japanese and Korean inspired,” with a focus on “easy breakfast-style foods.” The breakfast lineup includes rotating pastries like shiopan filled with egg and cheese, Spam, or kimchi pork. Black sesame rolls will be a staple, along with gluten-free cookies. For heartier options, there’s a steamed egg breakfast plate with mushroom powder, fish sauce, and scallions served with toast and rayu. The Korean French toast uses milk bread filled with and choice of yuzu, ube, or pandan custards and drizzled with honey. “You’ll be seeing a lot more fun and excit- ing pastry options,” Kim says. “We wanted to play with a lot more traditional fillings and toppings and shapes and styles of pastry.” More decadent items include kimchi tots topped with kimchi dust, pork belly, furikake, and scallions, plus a “raffle” avocado toast served on a rice waffle with fried egg. There’s even an “eggs in a basket” dish made of shok- upan slices with two eggs served with kimchi aioli and bacon jam. The menu features customer-favorite Ko- rean corn dogs, a fan favorite at Eeeeeatscon Miami 2025. These corn dogs are finished with kimchi aioli, scallions, and furikake. Lunch items include kimchi focaccia sand- wiches with pork belly or chicken thigh and a green mango salad. Tran’s beverage program pulls fan favorites from her Kitty Boba menu, all brewed in- house without powdered flavors. The fruit tea selec- tion includes pas- sion fruit, strawberry, mango, and lychee. Milk teas span brown sugar, strawberry, mango, black sesame latte, red bean latte, Thai tea, and ube strawberry varieties. Mat- cha gets multiple treatments: strawberry matcha, matcha latte, mango matcha, and ly- chee matcha. Coffee options include Vietnamese coffee that Tran has been brewing her entire life, plus brown sugar cafe latte, espresso, ameri- cano, and cappuccino. Customers can add boba, brown sugar boba, fruit pops, jellies, egg custard, or various cream foams. “It’s hard to find Vietnamese coffee in South Flor- ida,” says Tran. All drinks can be customized with adjustable sugar levels and non-dairy milk options. The space will operate as fast-casual coun- ter service with patio seating outside. They’re planning merchandise sales and Sunday morning sessions featuring local female DJs for what Kim describes as “groovy Sunday morning vibes.” The cat-themed logo con- nects both their brands. One of Kim’s employ- ees rescued a cat from the cafe parking lot, while Tran already features a cat in her Kitty Boba branding. Their logo shows a cat nap- ping on bread that doubles as a cloud or bed. As for their individual businesses, Kim says Oori Bakeshop is transitioning into a wholesale operation that will run separately from Mattari Suru. Tran is scaling back her pop-ups to focus on the cafe opening, though she’ll continue doing pop-ups around Bro- ward and Miami, plus catering work. Before the full café opens in a couple of months, they’re testing the waters with a pop-up at Kaiju in the Citadel nearby. The weekend operation, which runs Friday through Sunday starting at 7 p.m., will show- case a variety of savory items that are meant to be paired with Kaiju’s monster-themed drinks. They’re also planning other pop-ups around town with collaborators, though de- tails remain under wraps. The full café will begin with breakfast and lunch and potentially expand into happy hour. For Kim and Tran, it’s not just a new business — it’s a long-awaited home for the flavors and culture they’ve spent years build- ing pop-up by pop-up. Mattari Suru. 211 NE 82nd St., Miami; insta- gram.com/mattarisurumiami. Opening this fall. [email protected] ▼ Café Mattari Suru photo Miami’s first authentic Asian bakery and café, Mattari Suri, will open in Little River this fall by the Oori Bakeshop team with Japanese and Korean-inspired pastries and teas. “I HEAR CONSTANTLY THAT MIAMI DOESN’T HAVE ENOUGH ASIAN INFLUENCE. SO WE REALLY WANT TO BRING THAT TO MIAMI.”
