Café and vintage clothing shop partner on drink specials and discounts in downtown Port Huron

Kate’s Downtown has a lot of great items on its menu, as their faithful customers can attest.

But one thing they didn’t have was matcha, a finely-ground green tea-based drink.

Kate’s Downtown didn’t have it, that is, until their neighbors at Main Street Ensemble got in the ear of owner Kate Voss.

“One of the Main Street guys came back from California and told me that I just had to get matcha. I did some research and I got into it,” Voss says.

“It’s a really nice drink — especially for people that don’t drink coffee. And it’s full of antioxidants.”

Voss says that the Main Street team comes in every morning for their matcha drinks.

And now the downtown Port Huron businesses have formed a unique partnership over their shared love of the drink: Mainstreet Matcha.

Simply purchase a matcha drink at Kate’s Downtown and bring the receipt to Main Street Ensemble. That matcha now earns a ten percent discount at Main Street.

“They came in and they were talking about how cool it would be if we called our drink Mainstreet Matcha and people could get a discount at their store,” Voss says.

“It’s a promotion we just rolled out and hopefully it catches on.”

The partnership between Kate’s and Main Street is a welcome one, she says. Voss finds the young entrepreneurs’ enthusiasm for downtown Port Huron inspiring.

“I think with our downtown, specifically, we are all such a good team. The other coffee shops, the other sandwich shops — we all work together. We want each other to succeed, we want everyone to support us all,” Voss says.

“It’s really nice. We’re pretty much all friends, we’re all in this together.”

That support is especially welcome given the COVID-19 pandemic and its restrictions on business. Even though indoor dining was allowed again beginning Monday, Feb. 1, Kate’s Downtown is opting to keep its dining area closed — for now. The cafe is currently offering their menu to-go.

Voss says she would be more comfortable opening the dining area once capacity restrictions are increased from 25 to 50 percent.

“I desperately want dine-in services to be open, but let’s see how the next few weeks go,” she says.

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