Motoring Coffee Review: Matcha Among the Vintage Cars

All PostsSan Francisco Eats
Written By Amy Suto
A matcha latte in a Motoring Coffee cup with a red vintage fire truck parked inside the cafe

The day I visited Motoring Coffee, a little red vintage fire truck was parked in the middle of the room, looking extremely pleased with itself. This is normal here. The cars are the point.

Motoring Coffee is the cafe arm of The Motoring Club on Union Street — a genuinely cool room of rotating vintage vehicles with solid matcha — and it works best as a grab-and-go stop, not a place to settle in. The San Francisco clubhouse opened in July 2024 inside an Art Deco warehouse: the front stretch is the public cafe, and a members-only car lounge hides behind it.

The Concept Is the Draw

I love the concept. The display rotates — members’ machines cycle through, a Formula 1 car has done a residency, and even the community table is built on the bed of an old pickup. The matcha (they pour Nekohama) is solid. Not best-matcha-in-the-city solid, but solid — you’re here for the room, and the room delivers.

Where I'd Pump the Brakes

Seating is very limited and the shop runs busy. I wouldn’t plan to meet someone here, and I definitely wouldn’t plan to co-work — even early on a weekday, a seat is a lottery ticket, and the vibe isn’t really built to welcome the laptop-and-linger crowd anyway.

That’s not a flaw so much as a design choice. This is a pit stop, not a parking spot.

The Verdict on Motoring Coffee

  • Best for: A one-of-a-kind coffee-run detour · car people · neat-environment collectors
  • My order: The matcha latte
  • Know before you go: Seats are scarce and the room runs busy — plan on grab-and-go
  • Where: 1525 Union St, Cow Hollow (Google Maps) · motoring.coffee

If you’re making a matcha crawl of the neighborhood, Komeya no Bento in the Marina is a ten-minute walk away — and my best matcha in San Francisco ranking covers where the city’s great cups actually live.

For more places worth your appetite, my Los Angeles page pins my LA reviews on one map, and the best restaurants in San Francisco covers the other half of my eating life. Subscribe to my newsletter for new reviews as the research continues — I spent five years rating restaurants around the world in my travel guides, and old habits die delicious.