Midnight Coffee Announces (Another) Rebrand

They’ll even be open for longer this time.

From High Ground Cafe to Coffee Emporium to Midnight Coffee, this will be the cafe’s third rebrand in three years. After Iowa City residents and visitors realized that Midnight Coffee was indeed not open till midnight, owners knew they had to rebrand the popular Northside cafe and its four other locations to reflect the establishment’s identity and market the latest cafe trends.

Under the same ownership, the establishment will now be called Meet Me at Matcha. After a “life-changing” work trip to Japan, Alan Welles realized that Midnight Coffee had an outdated vibe and a misleading name. Welles was told by his wife that the logo being a man in glasses and a fedora looked stupid in the year 2026.

“I almost renamed it to Insomnia Cafe, but then my lawyer told me that wasn’t the best idea,” Welles told The Doily Allergen.

The cafe is expected to do minor renovations over the summer. After receiving complaints of its name and cheugy hipster ambience, the establishment will go back to chalkboard menus, lighter colored walls, and close at 10 PM to accommodate students looking to do some late-night studying. Welles will also reinstate the beloved fireplace.

Despite the rebrand, the cafe will still retain most of the same food and drink menu of Midnight Coffee, with the addition of a vibrant, greener matcha harvested from the fields of Shizuoka. Welles described it as the best matcha you can buy in Iowa City. Not like there was much competition anyway.

“Alliteration and the market for matcha will hopefully draw in more of a crowd. We hope the performative male type and hot Asian people become our niche.”