The popular Korean and Filipino specialty cafe Yoka Tea is working on opening its second location in Ballard.
Co-owners Marcellus Beza and Amy Park opened their first Yoka Tea location in Madrona about a year ago. It’s known for its matcha, which a Seattle Met reporter said was the “best sip of anything I’ve had all year,” and also sells coffee and other specialty drinks along with food from pop-ups such as Just a Bread Baby and Cottage Community Bakes.
In an announcement about the second location, the owners said the opportunity came up unexpectedly.
“The right space showed up. The right timing showed up. And the right signs kept appearing,” they said.
That “right space” is the former Little Tin Goods and Apothecary at 5335 Ballard Ave NW. Little Tin closed in October 2025 after 10 years in Ballard.
In a recent post, co-owner Beza shared that they’ve hit a few delays in the process of opening the new Ballard cafe.
“We demoed the space, then hit a wall,” Beza said in his post. They discovered that the building wasn’t permitted for restaurant use, and waiting for new permitting can take months. “It’s genuinely a true struggle as a small business, as we still have to run our day-to-day operations here at our first cafe, manage a project over there, and still pay rent for the space.”
While Yoka doesn’t have an official opening date in mind, they expect to open in Ballard by the fall.
Photo: Former Little Tin location at 5335 Ballard Ave / Google Image Capture October 2024