Sweet Dragon Boba Tea Opens At Six Corners With 36 Flavors Of Bubble Tea And A Jelly Bean Room

The cafe will also have lunch options and a cotton candy machine in time for its grand opening this weekend.

PORTAGE PARK — A boba tea shop and cafe at Six Corners is now open, bringing more than 36 flavors of the popular Asian drink and other colorful treats to the Northwest Side.

Sweet Dragon Boba, 4800 W. Irving Park Road, held a soft opening last weekend and is planning a grand opening Saturday, owner Edwin Figueroa said,

Figueroa said his daughters inspired him to open the large corner shop in the heart of Six Corners. They love boba tea and often carted him around to boba tea shops in the nearby suburbs or Downtown to get their slurpy bubble fix, he said.

"Looking at the places, they were always full, it was always at least 30 minutes before I even hit the register," Figueroa said. "And I said, you know what, I might as well open one myself."

Figueroa, a Portage Park resident with a background in law enforcement and startups, wants to bring more drink and lunch options and foot traffic to the Northwest Side, he said.

The cafe will offer savory food like chicken wings, nuggets and tenders as well as panini by the grand opening, he said. The store's hidden gem: a jelly bean and chocolate room.

"That's a product that I’ve always liked as a kid and my daughters also love it, so it's a little bit of both; it's a family thing," he said of jelly beans.

The jelly bean room, which is stocked with nearly 40 Jelly Belly products, will soon be accompanied by a cotton candy machine. People will be able to get cotton candy flower bouquets that have made the rounds on social media, Figueroa said.

Figueroa needs to add a few finishing touches to the shop, like signs directing people to the back candy room, and get the equipment to make panini — but the strong reception has been nonstop since last weekend, he said.

"As soon as the shades were up, I was swamped and it's been overwhelming," he said. "I didn't expect it but it's a good overwhelming."

Figueroa's son connected him to Humza and Fiza Razzak, owners of Gravitea Boba in suburban Schaumburg, who gave him guidance on opening the Six Corners shop. The Razzak family also helped him design the menu and get supplies, Figueroa said.

The storefront used to be a COVID testing site and a Sprint mobile store. Now, it boasts fake cherry blossoms that hang from the ceiling, bamboo plants, colorful stools and red TV menu monitors.

Figueroa took over the storefront in November and had hoped to open Sweet Dragon Boba in January, but delays with the renovation, permits and city inspector scheduling pushed back the opening for nearly six months, he said.

Ordering equipment and outfitting the store also moved the timeline back, Figueroa said. He finally got the green light from the Health Department last week.

Area businesses at Six Corners have struggled, with some closing for winter or permanently due to staff shortages, and others moving to new neighborhoods. Figueroa hopes his store will attract people to Six Corners, and encourage them to support other local shops and see what Portage Park has to offer, especially with summer approaching.

Boba tea, which was popularized by the Taiwanese American community on the West Coast, is "something new, fresh" for the area, Figueroa said.

"It's different than all the businesses around here," Figueroa said. "Hopefully, this will bring a lot of people in here and also through the little neighborhood. It's going to be here for a while."

He already has his eyes set on opening a second location in Park Ridge with a co-owner, he said.

Nina Grenke-Kosinski, the business liaison and program director of the Portage Park Chamber of Commerce, is planning the store's ribbon cutting Saturday. She's fielded questions from community members on excitement surrounding Sweet Dragon Boba Tea's opening for months, she said.

"I am ecstatic [the shop] is open and I love Edwin's decor," said Grenke-Kosinski, a lifelong Six Corners resident. "The time and effort he put into the smallest detail is very noticeable. The Six Corners strip has always been family-owned businesses and it's always a heartbeat of the Six Corners shopping district."

Sweet Dragon Boba Tea will have a ribbon cutting ceremony 12:30 p.m. Saturday and is open 11 a.m.-10 p.m. daily.

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