Funky Boba Lounge mixes flavored drinks and arcade games in Highwood

Jorian Micor spent much of the past five years as a territory salesman, pitching various vape products to smoke shops and corner stores scattered all across the northern Illinois and southern Wisconsin region.

It was during those winding, lonely drives that the 34-year-old from Morton Grove began to outline a dream he had long considered pursuing: opening his own boba tea shop. 

“There would be long drives to nowhere, Wisconsin, and you’re forced into your thoughts that way,” Micor recalled of that time. “So I’m driving, thinking about it and just constantly always thinking about it until I was just like, ‘You know what, let’s try and make this happen.”

That dream has become a reality with the opening of Funky Boba Lounge last month. Located at 338 Green Bay Road in Highwood, the shop is open from 1-9 p.m. every day except Wednesdays. 

The city’s first boba spot, Funky Boba Lounge offers both a menu of flavored drinks with specialty tapioca pearls and a backroom arcade filled with claw machines, karaoke booths, a pool table and more. The cafe also features alcoholic boba cocktails and hot ramen makers.

With previous experience managing a boba shop in college and noticing more restaurants in Highwood offering different cultures of cuisine, Micor pitched the idea of opening Funky Boba Lounge last year to his father, Christian Micor, and godfather, Tang Wong. 

The two are owners and operators of the long-running Vape312 shop and, interested in joining the business venture, signed a lease on the storefront property by Everts Park last July. 

While the co-partners’ original vision called for only a boba cafe in the approximately 1,300-square-foot space, the property’s landlord wanted to keep an adjoining, additional 1,300-square-foot space from being walled off from the cafe area, Micor said.

That left the group scrambling for ideas of how to profit from the one side of their cafe while busy making drinks on the other side. Wong, inspired from his travels in Asia, then suggested filling the space with the kinds of arcade machines he had seen in Korea, Micor said. 

This means Funky Boba Lounge is one half drink shop and one half game room with a row of 17 neon-lit claw machines, two karaoke booths, and several other test-your-skills prize machines. As a temporary opening promotion, those who buy a drink will receive a few tokens to play.

The games help draw and entertain two different kinds of crowds to the boba shop: kids who stop by the cafe after school for a sweet drink, and adults who swing by in the evening for a novelty cocktail. Micor said he’s unaware of any other boba tea shops who carry a liquor license. 

So far, Micor and his family have run the shop, with his brothers sometimes even picking up shifts for free. While the cafe is open for business, Micor said they still have work to do, like setting up more decorations, before a grand opening can be set in approximately a month. 

But even after launching with little marketing for a Sept. 29 soft opening — in part to participate in the city’s popular Pumpkin Fest — Micor said Funky Boba Lounge has already seen a good amount of customers. 

Near the rear of the cafe, a free photo-booth machine spits out pictures on receipt paper. Over the course of that festival weekend, Micor said the entire length of the bar became full of photos from those who stuck their selfies to the cafe’s counter wall. 

“It kind of gave a personal touch in terms of the shop,”  Micor said of the photos. “I’ve already seen kids walk in and they’re like, ‘Oh my god look who it is.’ Or they come in and, ‘Oh, so and so was here.’” 

“I don’t know, it makes the community feel like they built this place up with us,” Micor added. “They’ve been in here from the start.”

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