![\"Matcha](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/IMG_5466.JPG\" "\\"Matcha")
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Matcha Edit owner Marissa Johnson prepares for her day. Matcha Edit is a pop-up shop at Liberty City\u2019s Roots Bookstore & Market.<\/p>\n
Jalynn McDuffey<\/p>\n
On her 30th birthday, Marissa Johnson stood inside a coffee shop. For the last 10 years, she had dreamed of having one of her own.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m standing in a coffee shop that offers flowers, coffee, matcha,\u201d said Johnson, now 31. \u201cI thought to myself, \u2018When you gonna get on it?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
But, like many other young, aspiring entrepreneurs in South Florida, she found the cost and competition was too great.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo get a good espresso machine alone runs about $5,000,\u201d Johnson said. \u201c I don\u2019t have $5,000 to just put into an espresso machine. But I have a couple thousand to put into a brand and business.\u201d<\/p>\n
Johnson\u2019s answer was to create The Matcha Edit, a matcha and coffee pop-up bar. Pop-ups are small, limited-time operations with a low financial risk that allow businesses to build up a customer following.<\/p>\n
![\"Marissa](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/MATCHA.png\" "\\"MATCHA.png\\"")
Marissa Johnson (right) is the owner of Matcha Edit, a pop-up matcha and coffee bar. Jalynn McDuffey <\/p>\n
Pop-ups have become a popular alternative to traditional brick-and-mortar operations, even for existing brands. In a survey<\/a> conducted by Storefront and the University of South Carolina\u2019s College of Retail, existing business owners reported improved market visibility, an increase in sales and increased social media engagement, reporting an 80% rate of success after only one pop-up engagement.<\/p>\n The success Johnson was looking for was found through a partnership with Roots Bookstore, a Black-owned and operated business on Northwest 15th Avenue in Miami, a community she knew well.<\/p>\n Johnson balanced her budding small business with her career as a corrections officer. In the beginning, Matcha Edit\u2019s partnership with Roots Bookstore was about more than sales. It was about the joy her small business was bringing to the community and to herself.<\/p>\n \u201cI feel like I\u2019m happier when I do The Matcha Edit,\u201d said Johnson. \u201cThe community is just very grateful for the coffee shop because they don\u2019t have a specialty coffee shop in this vicinity.\u201d<\/p>\n The impact The Matcha Edit pop-up has made on Johnson and the community has not gone unnoticed. Roots Bookstore owner Phil Agnew cannot imagine his bookstore without it.<\/p>\n \u201cThey bring not only the people that we want, but people that we wouldn\u2019t imagine,\u201d said Agnew. \u201cWhat she has brought is a consistency and a loyalty to coming here almost on a daily basis amongst people that we never had and never would have had.\u201d<\/p>\n Matcha Edit also has a supporter in City Commissioner Christine King. King presides over District 5, the area of Miami that includes Liberty City.<\/p>\n King comes from a small business background as the owner of a law firm and considers the success of small businesses in her district to be a top priority.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m familiar with Roots and sampled a matcha from Matcha Edit,\u201d King said. \u201cI never had it before, and now I love it.\u201d<\/p>\n Over the decades she\u2019s spent as a small business owner and city commissioner, King has noticed that small business owners need technical assistance to make their businesses thrive. Things like co-mingling, or blending personal and business funds, can bring trouble.<\/p>\n \u201cThey did not have business accounts,\u201d King said. \u201cI\u2019ve known for decades how important it is to support small businesses. They have great products, but we have to get those products to the community.\u201d<\/p>\n But many South Florida entrepreneurs with pop-up businesses are not just looking to make a profit, but also to build community. Joshua and Smith Matthias, alongside their friend Excelomano Daniel, are two brothers whose community-based event series, Neighborhood Threads, allows local businesses to meet customers.<\/p>\n Neighborhood Threads is an event series operating throughout South Florida since 2023. Inspired by their mother\u2019s experiences working in markets in Haiti, the Matthias brothers combine a marketplace for local vendors with a party celebrating South Florida\u2019s Black culture.<\/p>\n Using the slogan \u201cLove Thy Neighbor,\u201d Neighborhood Threads created a platform to help small businesses gain visibility.<\/p>\n The first event attracted nearly 50 people, mostly students from Florida Atlantic University. The group\u2019s Juneteenth event at NoMi Village last month, meanwhile, had 2,000 attendees.<\/p>\n Smith Mattias, 26, lives in Sunrise and works for Amazon as a robotics engineer. He called his day job a \u201cside job\u201d because of how much he enjoys working on Neighborhood Threads events. It was important for him and his team to create an event that combined shopping in a market with a dance party.<\/p>\n \u201cNeighborhood Threads, it\u2019s solely focused on the vendors. You want to make sure that they\u2019re making money. If they\u2019re not making their money, then we serve no purpose. We have to serve our main purpose, which is to help the community. If the vendors do not make their money, then we are not doing our jobs,\u201d said Josiah Matthias, 25.<\/p>\n Nathania Casimir, the owner of Juicy Squeeze lemonade, brought her business to Neighborhood Threads\u2019 Art Basel event in December and sold out of her customized flavor lemonades, making around $1,100 in one day.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019ve had events where we make nothing, and then to come to bigger events like this and make a good profit, it just makes us want to keep going,\u201d Casimir said.<\/p>\n Building a community of supporters allows for pop-up business owners to promote their products and build their brands. For owners like Johnson, who started her pop-up almost a year prior, it allowed her to leave corrections and pursue the expansion of her pop-up brand full time. Taking a chance on her dreams was a risk but allowed Johnson to accomplish more than she knew she could.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s nerve-wracking, but everything in life is,\u201d she said. \u201cIt is a risk, but I just don\u2019t wanna be 50 and say I didn\u2019t try.\u201c<\/p>\n ![\"Vendor](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/THREADS3.jpg\" "\\"THREADS3.jpg\\"")
Vendor Tristan Davis stands behind her table at Neighborhood Threads, a pop-up party and marketplace. Jalynn McDuffey <\/p>\n![\"Customers](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/NEIGHBORHOODTHREADS.jpg\" "\\"NEIGHBORHOODTHREADS.jpg\\"")
Customers shop at a Neighborhood Threads pop-up event. Jalynn McDuffey <\/p>\n![\"Neighborhead](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/NeighborhoodThreadsTeam.jpeg\" "\\"NeighborhoodThreadsTeam\\"")
Neighborhead Threads\u2019 creators at one of their events: Josiah and Smith Matthias (second and third from right) and Excelamano Daniel (middle) with Kelito Pierre Paul, Mark Daniel, Duchard Lazare and Kaulinz Banks. Neighborhood Threads <\/p>\n