Square Enix to Franchise Two New Permenent Cafés and Shops

As opposed to pop-up shops that have opened in the past, particularly in the United States, Square Enix announced today that two permanent locations combining a café and fan shop will open sometime in "Spring 2026" in Los Angeles and the Shinjuku area of Tokyo. Since we're a third of the way through Spring already, I would assume that official opening dates will be published quite soon.

The two locations will, as is quite clear, consist of a café area in which the menu will be inspired by the Squenix canon, and a shop that will have merchandise from the merch arm of the company. Neither will be directly operated by Squenix, but instead managed by licensees. The American shop will be in the Little Tokyo neighborhood of Los Angeles, about 20 miles from Square Enix USA's headquarters. The Shinjuku shop is listed in the press release as taking up three floors in Paselabo Tower, which sounds huge, but I took a look at Google Street View and, well, it seems like "tower" might be a bit aggrandizing.

Hopefully both locations are a success and might lead to more locations in the future, even if they're just pop-up in nature.

Source: Wario64 on Twitter