New tea on the block: Second location of Dragon Lili Boba Bar opening soon in Palm Springs

Boba-loving 20- and 30-somethings rejoice: Palm Springs is finally getting in on the tea craze.

Dragon Lili Boba Bar will be opening a new location on Palm Canyon Drive in downtown Palm Springs in the next few weeks, a partner in the business told The Desert Sun.

The bar will take over the former home of Crazy Mel’s Burgers & Bar inside the Town and Country Center, a complex of historic modernist buildings that has been being gradually rehabilitated. Crazy Mel’s closed last year.

Dragon Lili Boba Bar, which sells a variety of tea-based beverages plus coffee drinks and a few desserts, opened its first location in Rancho Mirage’s Rancho Las Palmas shopping center last March.  A concession stand in Stadium 1 at the Indian Wells Tennis Garden soon followed.

However, Joe Enos said he and his partners had been aiming from the beginning to find the right spot to open a shop in Palm Springs. They knew they'd found it when the Crazy Mel’s space opened: It not only fronts Palm Canyon Drive, but also offers ample outdoor seating.

Better yet, the 1,500-square foot space was delivered to Enos and his partners as “an empty” shell that could be built out to their specifications. Enos said guests will likely recognize some similarities to the Rancho Mirage location, which is known for its K-pop soundtrack and the imagery of what appear to be large boba balls floating through the space. However, he also adds that “there may be some unique things to this space that we are currently developing.”

As in Rancho Mirage, the Palm Springs location will have a mix of indoor and outdoor seating. Also consistent between the locations are the drink offerings, which include standard milk and fruit teas as well as smoothies that are made with a mix of fruit, Greek yogurt and green tea.

Other options include frozen teas, which come in 15 flavors, a horchata drink and a boba lemonade. And if you don’t like any of the tea and boba combinations on the menu, you can also create your own combination. Of course, many of the drinks are designed to be enjoyed with boba, chewy pearls that come in various flavors and are added to tea.

Enos said Dragon Lilli’s boba is prepared fresh throughout the day from what he explains is a recipe that was created after the team tried boba throughout California.

“We created a proprietary recipe basting the boba with brown sugar, so it’s got a really rich caramel taste,” he said.

The desert menu, meanwhile, currently includes macarons, cotton candy and waffles that can be topped with strawberry syrup, chocolate syrup and even boba.

The business gets its name and ethos from Lili, an imagined girl with wings and her pet dragon, Boba (the pair are depicted in its logo) that are meant to communicate childlike wonder and a sense of cultured sophistication that Enos said is typical of boba customers.

“In essence, this mascot now serves as kind of a guidepost for us for everything we do, that what we’re doing is youthful but sophisticated,” he said.

While an exact date has not been set, Enos said he expects the shop will open in the next two or three weeks.

The business is also opening a second outpost soon at the tennis garden, which will be located with other food vendors on the grounds outside the stadium and serve a menu of potstickers, rice bowls and other Asian fare in addition to its trademark boba teas.

Enos also said he and his partners hope to further grow Dragon Lilli, while staying true to the business’ roots in the Coachella Valley.

“People say sometimes that we look like we might be a franchise, but that’s totally not the case,” he said. “It’s local ownership and a brand that’s built locally and that we hope to continue to grow. And I think coming to Palm Springs will really help that growth trajectory.”

Paul Albani-Burgio covers growth, development and business in the Coachella Valley. Follow him on Twitter at @albaniburgiop and email him at paul.albani-burgio@desertsun.com.

This article originally appeared on Palm Springs Desert Sun: New location of Dragon Lili Boba Bar opening in downtown Palm Springs