Back in April, I wrote about Square Enix’s first everlasting Cafe & Shop coming to america, and on the time I said that as someone based in Southern California, the Los Angeles location immediately caught my eye. Well, it’s finally here. The Square Enix Cafe & Shop Los Angeles starts with a soft opening on Saturday, June 13, followed by a grand opening on Saturday, June 20.
The June 13 soft opening runs a limited menu of themed drinks, entrees, and desserts inspired by franchises like Final Fantasy, Dragon Quest, and NieR:Automata. The total menu lineup arrives with the grand opening on June 20. Reservations for each the soft-opening period and the grand opening can be found now through the official Square Enix Cafe & Shop Los Angeles website.
Alongside the cafe is an adjoining merchandise shop, and you may browse it without making a dining reservation or buying anything from the cafe itself. The shop carries official Square Enix merchandise, including exclusive items just like the L.A. Chocobo and L.A. Slime T-shirts, which feature commemorative artwork made to mark the primary everlasting Square Enix Cafe & Shop within the U.S.
The Los Angeles location sits at 316 E 1st Street in Little Tokyo and is operated by J-Pop Culture Cafe Inc., a subsidiary of Little Akihabara Holdings, which focuses on recreating authentic Japanese-style themed cafes for American audiences. Operating hours, together with reservation and walk-in details, are listed on the official site.
When these cafes were first announced, I discussed that I’d visited the Eorzea Cafe in Osaka back in 2022 and was looking forward to creating a stop on the Los Angeles location once it opened. Now I would finally get the prospect.