Everything Alex Cooks x Matsar
Mochi & Matcha, no focaccia, we met on Wear Many Hats no Alibaba
Friend and guest of Wear Many Hats, Everything Alex Cooks and our in house matcha + wellness brand, Matsar, collaborated on a pop-up this past weekend at farm.one in Prospect Heights, Brooklyn, NY. The best thing of having an in the neighborhood pop up is that it’s in our neighborhood. We did not have to travel long and far. Throwback to $6 Ubers to lug around our gear no problem.
Alex put up a poll on whether or not she should do a vlog on how to put together a pop up together or what next amazing piece she should make. I am here to tell you I will not be making a vlog of either of them but to tell you how inspiring Alex is to me. I was so glad I got to meet her at her pop-up at Public Records in 2023. I believe I found her through the grapevine of food people I follow on IG. When I created Wear Many Hats, I wanted to have a food segment on the show where I invite a bunch of food creators to chat with me about their specialty. I want Wear Many Hats to be the Food Network meets Bon Appétit although both are frowned upon, I guess now we’re Cherry Bombe meets Broccoli? So I went to Public Records, said what’s up, and ordered the Watermelon + Perilla Salad.
Later that week, I reached out to have Alex on the show and the rest was history.
Then I photographed her for projects with Dahsar and lovely collaborators, Commercial Type.
I always have Alex and Wear Many Hats guests in the back of my mind. They are all good people and fun to collaborate with. I’m glad that Alex was down to meet up a couple times after our episode. I told her I wanted to collaborate with her on something. Wear Many Hats is cool but I would want to do a live show someday soon. I’ve bought all this equipment to do so but I honestly don’t think I have the balls to do so. Going to have to go Jordan Show with it and start small at local bars and venues. Jordan Coley is a hilarious writer, comedian, and performer I look up to that has been going for it since. I love it when people do that.
Alex is a person that I have been wanting to collaborate on something food related since I’ve met her. Her IG bio reads “i’m not really sure you can call it cooking since i just throw whatever i have in the fridge/pantry together and voila vegetables.” That’s me when it comes to drinks. This is another reason of why I wanted to start a matcha + wellness brand. I can cook small meals for myself. Easy. I can’t cook for a whole dinner crew. Not in my blood. Although I have told everyone that I would be an amazing sous chef. I know I would be. I worked in many restaurants in Philly where I was a food prep that could soon be a sous chef but I went back to running cafés instead. I always thought I would open up a coffee shop or roast my own coffee but I have come to the conclusion that coffee has no vibe. Only the things that bring it in say Cars & Coffee, Cameras & Coffee. Very uptight behavior and fast paced. Where I want something chill. I go to those events and feel as if I need to be on the lookout for something. When it comes to matcha, I can relax and let the day go by no problem.
After we soft launched Matsar in February, we’ve been going for it. Although in 2025, I’ve been putting out all the feelers for pop-ups and being in cafés, I still tell everyone that it was established in 2024. When I was 33 years old. Jesus year. I wished I was more serious with it instead of lowkey crashing out and buying a bunch of domain names to create a bunch of new projects that never came to life. Except two. This is one of them. I have a problem with focusing but I’m glad that I got my bearings back together.
The pop-up was everything I could have imagine with Alex and team. I would like to say I don’t know how we did it but I am a producer and I work with tight deadlines so it’s no surprise. Alex is a pro. She’s been doing pop-ups for quite sometime. It’s second nature for us no big deal. We had our pop-up together on Sunday, May 4th. We had a meeting with the venue, farm.one, on Friday, April 25th. We had to wait for confirmation to lock in the venue by Tuesday, April 29th before telling anyone. I photographed and designed the flyer within 6 hours to put out the flyer the morning of Wednesday, April 30th. Super tight across the board but we did it. I dropped off more matcha in our secret not so secret 100g Izumo Matcha for her to use in her baking and to share with friends, family, and hairdresser. Oishii dropped off their signature berries for us at my house, early one morning and we blended to make as one of our syrups for our Strawberry Matcha Latte. I went to Chinatown to pick up more pandan leaves for our signature KL Matcha Latte.
Come the day of the event we pulled up, set up by the garage door, and when 10am est hit, there was a line wrapped around the block onto Vanderbilt Ave.
I know the Partiful hit over 150 Going guests but I did not think of anything of it. Usually cut that in half and people will show. Even with half, that’s still a lot of people pulling up. Alex sold out of her Black Sesame Mochi Babka and Matcha Mochi Sesame Semolina Cake made with our very own Matsar Izumo Matcha in the first hour. I was freaking out on the way there but kept my cool.
Until…
I ran out of matcha, milks, ice, all the above. More on that if you see me, ask me about that. It was insane.
I can’t wait for this weekend for our market with Enoki Catskills at Basilica Hudson.
We’re already coming down from a high but me and Alex want to do more. We’re posting recaps all week.
The caption says it all that I want to share more thank you’s.
“The Next Big Thing in NYC matcha” is big. Thank you so much Alex for the kind words.
Thank you again to Alex for having us and collaborating with us.
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