A long vacant space on Downer Avenue on Milwaukee’s East Side could see a new tenant as SereniTea, a bubble tea café, looks to open its third Milwaukee area location there.
Milwaukee-based SereniTea, which has a location near Marquette University and another at Bayshore in Glendale, has pulled permits and received licensing approval to open a café at 2575 N. Downer Ave.
SereniTea serves a variety of tea-based drinks, including its signature bubble, or ‘boba’, tea – a Taiwanese drink that includes freshly brewed tea, milk and chewy tapioca balls, known as pearls. Its menu also includes fruit teas, smoothies, shakes and slushies.
While offering a similar menu to other locations, this location will be more upscale than the other two, owner Manpreet Singh told the Common Council’s Licensing Committee in June.
Singh had been working toward an undergraduate degree in business administration from Marquette when he opened SereniTea’s first location. At the time, he told BizTimes Milwaukee that his vision was to bring something new to the area while creating a destination where students could study and socialize.
Sigh did not respond to a request for comment on the Downer Avenue location or an estimated opening date.
The SereniTea space was most recently the site of Chancery, a restaurant which closed many of its Milwaukee area locations. The space is part of a block-long collection of retail spaces including the Downer Theatre, Boswell Books and Starbucks, among others. In 2020, a Seattle-based real estate investor acquired the pair of properties for $11.25 million.
