Cafe BeBoBa: teen angst and tapioca

After Sparky’s soccer game last Saturday, we all ran for the car in the downpour, and headed to Hot Doug’s – however, the line of dripping wet dog-hungry patrons waiting in the rain made us reconsider. Uberspouse had a flash of inspiration and headed up Western Ave. Our son Sparky is addicted to bubble tea, and as we passed the perky brown ponytail signaling we were in the vicinity of Cafe BeBoBa, we decided to check it out.

BeBoBa is a modern take on the teen soda shop from the 1950’s. As you enter, you are greeted by psychedelic swirls of green and yellow, dotted (like the teas) by shiny black bubbles. You pass a large stack of board games and a little black couch bearing the caveat “No make-out zone” to reach the bubble tea bar, dwarfed by the giant chalkboard sign with an incredible selection of flavors The end of the bar houses a giant candy rack with such sweets as Laffy Taffy, Sweet Tarts and the like.

They don’t have much in the way of food – mostly glorified cheese sandwiches pressed in a panini grill (which were OK, just not what you go there for.) They also offer instant ramen noodle soup, and in a brilliant display of business savvy, Pop-tarts.

We all ordered a sandwich, and then four bubble teas: Watermelon, Jackfruit, Durian and Purple Oreo for Sparky. I regret not being able to try lavender, star fruit, red bean..... If you don’t have a sweet tooth, they have an interesting selection of hot teas and other hot drinks.

The teas are made with both real fruit and/or day-glo bubble tea powders, and then are laminated with tops bearing cute little manga-style girls you can skewer through the eyeball with your giant straw. (this was a particular advantage for Durian – the flavor reminded me of cherimoya, but it really smells like feet) The fruit drinks were very good, but Purple Oreo was the most interesting; you tasted both cream and cookie – but neither were present in the drink.

In case you’ve never had bubble tea, the drink part is not a lot different from a fruit smoothie – but what makes them stand out are the black tapioca “bubbles, “ strangely taste-free, chewy bits of texture – sort of like a nothing-flavored gummy bear. You can also request gummi bits instead.

The place was deserted on a Saturday afternoon, but it’s apparently become quite the local teenage hangout after school, and for this reason I’m glad to support it. There aren’t many places that offer older kids a safe place to hang out and enjoy themselves – and offer somewhere around 80 flavors from around the globe. If you’ve got kids in the eye-rolling “but MAom” stage, I highly recommend it.

BeBoBa Bubble Tea House 3533 N Western Ave. (773) 883-2622
http://www.beboba.com/

I love this place and highly recommend the PB and J sandwiches, which, yes, I know I can make at home...but sometimes it just tastes better when someone else goes thru the trouble of making it!

I had a disappointing experience here. I tried to order a simple fresh fruit smoothee - no yougrt, no dairy, just fruit. They told me that they couldn't accomodate that. They use a powdered mix for all their drinks and very, very little fruit. I ended up ordering a coconut smoothee (the only one she was confident didn't have dairy in it) which was pretty awful. It didn't even have coconut milk in it ! Needless to say, I wasn't compelled to return.

Science Boy and I *loved* BeBoBa and tried to go fairly often. The owners were friendly and it's always cool to support a small business.

Sadly, they closed for good yesterday. Even though the crowds of Lane Tech students was insane on both Friday and Saturday (I waited close to 2 hours Friday and, though I was the first person there Saturday, there were probably 40 people behind me by the time they opened the doors), those students were apparently not frequenters of the shop and it just wasn't working. (I heard a girl in front of me telling her friends, "I never came here before, but I've been here every day this week!" Ugh.)

I hear there are other delicious bubble tea places in the city, so I guess we will look for one. I know there has been some criticism of the use of powdered flavor. SB and I mostly got the flavors that used real fruit and, on the rare days we didn't, it always tasted okay to me. I will miss the friendliness of the owners, who always remembered us and chatted with us while they were working.