Bon Bon Shop Opens in Brewery District
New cafe on 10th and McKinley offers boba tea, coffee and pastries.
Site of Bon Bon Shop, 1259 N. 10th St. Photo taken March 13, 2024 by Sophie Bolich.
Say bonjour to Bon Bon Shop. The French-inspired coffee and boba cafe is now open in the Brewery District, offering a sweet experience from start to finish.
Upon arrival, guests are greeted with a flurry of inspirational messages — most clearly written by children — offering reminders such as “be kind” and “love is all you need.”
A second greeting comes from Dominique Yang, who owns the business with her husband, Sai.
On a quiet morning earlier this week, Yang busied herself behind the counter, preparing pitchers of fresh tea and keeping an eye on a vat of bubbling tapioca pearls.
Since the cafe began its soft opening last week, Yang said business has slowly gained momentum, but has not yet reached its peak, a trend she attributes to the chilly spring weather.
She added that a handful of customers generally stop in for a cup of coffee in the morning, with the majority of boba tea drinkers visiting for an afternoon pick-me-up. The cafe, 1259 N. 10th St., offers a wide variety of both, with coffee and espresso drinks including drip, cafe au lait, lattes, americanos and mochas. The drinks, made with Stone Creek coffee, are available either hot or iced and in various flavors.
Bon Bon also serves dalgona, a take on the popular whipped coffee drink. The cafe’s version features milk topped with flavored whipped cream and is available in chocolate, strawberry, coffee, matcha and brown sugar varieties.
Additional beverages include tea — mango, peach, lychee and others — served with or without milk. Guests can also skip the tea altogether and opt for the milk series, which comes in flavors like cookies and cream, yogurt strawberry and lavender.
A selection of non-dairy fruit smoothies is also available in flavors like passion fruit, taro, coconut, lychee, peach, strawberry and mango.
Drinks can be customized with the addition of non-dairy milks and toppings including tapioca pearls, jelly, popping boba and crystal boba.
To eat, Bon Bon offers French macarons and other pastries, along with packaged snacks like madeleines, chocolates, cookies and Kinder products.
The cafe’s French-flavored theme is a result of Yang’s upbringing in France; she spent most of her life there before moving to the United States 10 years ago.
Yang said the cafe’s name stands for bonjour and bon voyage — hello and goodbye in French — as well as bonbon, meaning candy.
Though she was born and raised in Europe, Yang has roots in Thailand. Both of her parents were born there, but moved to France before she was born, she said.
The 784-square-foot cafe occupies a space that formerly housed Boiler House Cafe. The previous business operated for eight months before its March 2023 closure.
The Yangs haven’t made any major changes to the building, which features exposed Cream City brick walls and an industrial feel. The cafe offers banquette seating, two high-top tables and handful of colorful armchairs.
Before opening the brick-and-mortar cafe, Bon Bon operated as a pop-up, appearing at various farmers markets and events, including PrideFest and the Milwaukee Night Market.
Bon Bon Shop is open Tuesday through Thursday from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m., Friday through Saturday from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. and Sunday from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., according to the business’s website.
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