Junia Cafe

Junia describes itself in five words on its own front page: a neighborhood cafe. The Gardena room lives up to it, and the matcha gets as much thought as the rotating roasters do. The earl grey matcha and the jasmine matcha latte are the two people go out of their way for, and both deserve the trip. It opens at seven on weekdays and eight at weekends, closing at five either way, with the kitchen running a soft-open service from nine to two on weekdays. The owners are a married couple born and raised in the South Bay, and they are open about wanting to be part of the community they have always called home. Yeems has a Gardena room too, so the two together make a genuine local route. We would take the earl grey matcha and stay long enough to see why the regulars are regulars.