Alice in Wonderland crew serves up art and boba tea in the Douglas Design District

There’s a new boba coffee shop in the Douglas Design District, and this one has a bit of a twist.

“What’s different about us is we’ve got a gallery along with having the coffee shop,” Joe Fowler said of Mad Boba Gallery.

His wife, Jackie, a school teacher, wanted to open a tea shop, and Fowler said he “wanted a place just to display my artwork.”

That’s what they now have at 1500 E. Douglas, a couple of blocks west of Hydraulic where MakeICT once was.

Local artists can rent space for $10 a square foot per month or $8 a month if they sign up for three months and pay the first month up front.

So far, it’s mostly Fowler’s art that’s up, though several artists are in the process of staring to showing there.

Also, Fowler said there’s “an Alice in Wonderland kind of theme going on on the walls.”

There’s the Red Queen and the White Rabbit. Still to come is a painting of a tea party and one of Alice popping up out of a house.

Mad Boba Gallery features boba tea, which is a hot or cold drink featuring tapioca pearls soaked in brown sugar. The pearls are used as a sweetener and a topping.

“A lot of people call it bubble tea,” Fowler said. “The actual name’s boba.”

He said the shop has several varieties of the strong black tea along with a full coffee menu, pastries and some breakfast and lunch dishes.

There are about 20 seats in the 3,000-square-foot gallery.

“We just want to have a nice, relaxing place for artists to come hang out,” Fowler said.

He said they also hope to attract business people in the area.

Fowler, who works mostly in wood and metal for his artwork, said he wants to be making art, “but lately I’ve been making coffee.”

This story was originally published February 27, 2023 at 5:05 AM.