Boba Club

1825 Waukegan Road, Glenview, IL 60025

Who or what is Boba?

I thought Boba’s last name was Fett.

Apparently, there is a Club, and it’s not run by the Mandalorian.

Boba Club is a place where you can go to relax or be productive, and enjoy one or a few of their many menu items. Some of the drinks feature tapioca pearls: those dark, sweet, chewy dollops of fun and flavor at the bottom of teas and other drinks.

Let’s go to Boba Club. We’re all members of the Club!

Scroll down to see more photos and read more about Boba Club.

I read about Boba Club from a free monthly Japanese newspaper. Actually, I didn’t read the article. I can’t read Japanese. Yet. (That’s another story.) But I did see enough from the pictures to know that Boba Club was where I wanted to be and a boba drink was what I wanted to try for the very first time.

Lisa and I made the trip to Glenview where we found Boba Club tucked in the nook of a strip mall. It looked cozy from the outside but after we walked in and kept walking, we needed a drink. Boba Club runs deep with a seating area, phone booths, two conference meeting rooms and a lounge. Why not be a card-carrying Club member?

We took our time looking at the dual menu screens, asking questions as if we were tourists in our own country. We had never before experienced Boba. It’s never as good as the first time, so they say, so we wanted it to be good.

I’m sort of like a light house keeper. I prefer to do my own thing, sending out my beam of Simple Luxuries enlightenment; but, in the reverse direction, stuff gets filtered back to me. I could see for miles that there was a new craze on the horizon—sunset drinks.

I call them sunset drinks because they look like a sunset in a glass. Boba Club has an assortment of such beautiful and flavorful drinks. I decided on the Purple Palmer in a Light Bulb Cup.

That’s a cup that looks like a light bulb. Bottom’s up!

“The mango and jasmine go together very well with a nice, bright flavor! The boba pearls give a burst of sweetness.”

After looking at all these photos, if you’ve haven’t gone to Boba Club just now, I’ll keep writing so you can keep reading. I held the Purple Palmer in my hand. I was absorbed by the sunset of purple haze and lemon sea in a light bulb cup. I swirled the heart-shaped strawberry pearls at the bottom. I dropped the boba straw into the light bulb and took a sip. I pulled in some boba pearls. I thought, “They taste fruity—not too sweet—and they taste like the real deal strawberry even if nobody had told me. The Purple Palmer sunset lemonade tastes a little sweet but delightfully tart.” I wanted a larger cup. I also wished my light bulb were a brighter wattage!

Lisa zeroed in on the Mango Jasmine iced tea. She’s not a fan of overly sweet anything. I watched her from behind a safety wall.  She took a sip and was pleased, “The mango and jasmine go together very well with a nice, bright flavor! The boba pearls give a burst of sweetness.” The all-clear signal was given.

At the end of my blog posts, I often say if I will be back or not to revisit the reviewed place. This isn’t the end. Yes, I will be back. In fact, I went back already.

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On our second visit (hot d*mn!), we wanted to try the coffee and a couple dessert items. When it comes to coffee, you gotta cover the hot and the iced. Don’t worry, we’ve got the desserts covered too. Sherwin Williams, move over.

Hot coffee is like a litmus test. If a place has a coffee machine—a real one that looks like a gleaming Cylon—then I want the person on staff to fire up the big equipment and make the lights flicker. I wanted a cup of Mocha White Chocolate coffee. I took off the lid. The coffee was steaming hot and I could hear the foam popping. I raised the cup to smell the fresh, roasted coffee. Taking a sip, I felt an experience like being on a water slide—a slow start with a gradual acceleration that floods your senses with a “whoosh” feeling. I thought, “The Mocha White Chocolate is so smooth that the coffee is the perfect blend of gentle sweetness with the authentic robustness of serious coffee.” It felt as though I was sitting al fresco at a busy cafe on an Italian piazza.

Lisa runs hot, and it was still summer, so she preferred a blended frozen experience—the Caramel Cream blended freeze. She was excited to try the crushed ice coffee drink, so smoothly blended. Her first taste opened her eyes, “The Caramel Cream has a rich caramel flavor. It satisfies my sweet tooth!” Sweet tooth. What now?

It was time to graduate to desserts. We cut our teeth on drinks. Now it was time to drink in the goodness of the desserts at Boba Club. I was thinking it might be time to shove my face in a baseball glove like I used to when I was a kid, smelling the leather and the grass stains. Except now it would be chocolate waffle puff, vanilla ice cream, Oreo crumbles and an Oreo cookie that would make up the Oreo Waffle Puff. Maybe I had a prescience as a kid and was looking for this deep in my baseball glove.

The Puff was on! Man vs. Puff. More like Overgrown Boy Pretending To Be Man vs. Puff. I took a spoonful. It looked hardly enough. I put the spoon down and head butted the Puff with my mouth. This was much more effective. I have to be honest, rushing your food gives you a rush of flavor. What an epiphany! I was overwhelmed but managed to put myself back together, “The Oreo Waffle Puff has a savory touch to the waffle puff with a true cocoa body. The vanilla ice cream is the perfect complement. Oreo crumbles add a nice texture that leads up to the coupe de grace, the Oreo cookie.” Yes, I thought all that during my first chomp. My eyes must’ve been spinning like slots at a casino. All sevens. Oreo Waffle Puff is a winner!

Lisa was hunting for the big game. When she ordered Honey Toast, I thought she was just trying to make my neck snap. It did and it kinda stuck there. The Honey Toast took the longest to reach the pass from the kitchen, but as soon as I saw it, I knew why. The Honey Toast should have its own theme song when it is carried to the seating area, like an Egyptian god(dess) or a prize fighter is entering the room. It was beautiful to see. I could smell the sunny sweetness of the honey drizzle. The whipped cream topped with cinnamon looked like a mountain at the top of Candy Land. The sliced bananas resting on the thick, tender toast were beautifully arranged. No, really. I have an overhead shot on my Instagram page. (See the link at the end of this post.)

“The Honey Toast is an amazing portion, drizzled with honey on top of a light, fluffy bread. The blueberries and whipped cream top it off nicely.”

Lisa and I hovered over the Honey Toast. We started to fork pieces that were pre-cut, carefully balancing blueberries, bananas, honey and whipped cream with cinnamon. Our eyes must’ve been as wide as our mouths as we took our first bites. Lisa was first to put the experience into words, “The Honey Toast is an amazing portion, drizzled with honey on top of a light, fluffy bread. The blueberries and whipped cream top it off nicely.” I couldn’t agree more. But I might add that the toast was so tender that it reminded me of what they call “Hotel Bread” in Japan that is also thick and tender. The toast brought me back to French toast or brioche. If I’m going on this much about the toast, you know the rest was just as amazing!

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The next time I go to Boba Club, I’d like to go after 6pm when they also serve small plates such as sandwiches and tacos. I’d imagine that the atmosphere would be different and maybe like an impromptu party!

To plan your trip to Boba Club, whether it be to hang out, study, chill or book a web conference meeting, sample your first taste at Boba Club

To see more photos of Boba Club, follow my Instagram page at Instagram – The Simple Luxuries