When they met, Colin Brown would make Emily Quady pour-over coffee. They both were passionate about coffee and experimented with different roasters in San Luis Obispo.
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Tiny Café is open outside of Lincoln Market & Deli—496 Broad St. in SLO—from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. The cafe also does catering for private and local events, which can be booked via tinycafe.xyz.
“I could see how much care Colin put into it,” Quady said. “He tried to make me really good coffee or the best he could, and that’s kind of how we together started our coffee journey.”
That was five years ago, and after deciding to start their own cafe, they began working as baristas in San Luis Obispo.
Together, they created Tiny Café, a coffee pop-up that started outside of Bread Bike Bakery in 2023, with an espresso machine, a menu of lattes and cappuccinos, and a tent. The pop-up now operates out of a trailer in front of Lincoln Market & Deli on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., with a menu of matcha and coffee drinks.
Tiny Café aims to make the best drinks possible, taking inspiration from cafes in Europe and Japan. Intention lies behind every decision made at their cafe.
“We were well received by the community,” Brown said. “People started to really enjoy the coffee we were serving, and that’s really where Tiny Café started.”
Tiny Café moved to Lincoln Market & Deli at the end of 2023, where the duo continued to grow and expand their business. The pair took a break in the middle of 2025 when they went through the process of acquiring the trailer. At the beginning of 2026, Tiny Café returned to Lincoln with a new trailer in tow.
Quady said the trailer seems more professional.
“It’s more approachable for people that are not maybe comfortable approaching a small tent setup like what we had before with the table,” Quady said.
The cafe offers unique twists on familiar beverages. One of the most popular, the “favorite latte,” is a vanilla latte with cardamom. The spice adds sweetness, pushing the flavor through.
For Quady, creating new drinks is a process of trial and error that’s a fun part of her job. Sometimes the pair invents a beverage on the spot that ends up staying on the menu.
A staple, the lion’s mane mocha, was created for the Beaver Festival. The drink is a coffee-based drink with dark cacao and organic lion’s mane mushroom extract.
Currently, Quady is experimenting with jasmine-flavored drinks.
As they continue to experiment, Brown said that he is constantly learning.
“I wouldn’t say I’m an expert by any means, but I’m eager to keep learning more and more about cafe drinks and preparations of cafe drinks and trying to make them as good as possible,” Brown said.
The baristas treat every drink like it’s the only one they are working on.
“Just remembering like, yes this is someone’s drink they ordered for today and this is maybe one out of many, but this will be that one person’s only drink and just being aware that we have to make it perfect,” Quady said.
As part of aiming for perfection, they hand whisk matcha, following the traditional method of matcha making, using a chasen whisk and a bowl made by a local potter.
The Tiny Café has also been serving matcha since about six months after it first opened. Brown’s mom’s side of the family is from Obuse in Nagano, Japan, and he recalls matcha being a treat given as a gift.
‘Just remembering like, yes this is someone’s drink they ordered for today, and this is maybe one out of many, but this will be that one person’s only drink and just being aware that we have to make it perfect.’
—Emily Quady, Tiny Cafe cofounder
“I remember matcha being so special as a child, and I’m glad that we can share that with people here in San Luis Obispo, especially at the quality and the level that we are able to offer it at,” Brown said.
One of Brown’s favorite memories from running Tiny Café comes from a sunny Saturday when a customer complimented their matcha.
“Someone walks up to me and says, ‘This matcha is so good,’ and I could just tell that they really meant it and felt it, so that made me feel really great and it made me think, ‘Oh we are doing something right,’ and it put a big smile on my face that day,” Brown said.
On that day, Brown saw people hanging out around the trailer, enjoying drinks and chatting, noting that it felt like a good vibe.
“Good group of people who were just having a good time on a nice sunny Saturday,” Brown said.
Growing up in Seattle, Washington, surrounded by a competitive coffee scene, Brown considered coffee a social hub and wanted to create that space where the community could come together. Quady added that the community has been supportive.
“I feel like people are so open to supporting small businesses and trying new things,” Quady said.
One of the challenges with being a small business is getting your brand out there and letting people know you are there, she said. Brown has a background in graphic design and was excited to develop his own brand—a simple, iconic solid-colored logo containing the coffee and matcha spot’s name.
“We love the color green. It’s the color of our matcha, but also it spoke to us,” Quady said.
As for the name, it was a pretty obvious and fun choice.
“What are we, we are a tiny cafe,” Quady said. ∆
Intern Katy Clark enjoys the good vibes of a good cup of coffee. Reach her at ntintern@newtimesslo.com.
This article appears in April 16-23, 2026.