Funky Jamaica Plain has never been afraid to blaze a trail on the eating-and-drinking front. After all, where else in the city are you likely to find gourmet home-style comfort foods (Zon’s), authentic Eritrean dishes (Sagla), and cranberry-pumpkin-walnut pancakes (the amazing Sorella’s)? So it’s fitting that the latest blip on JP’s culinary radar would be a new café specializing in bubble tea. June Bug Café, newly opened in the Hyde Square neighborhood, combines coffee-house chic (exposed brick, huge plush chairs, walls adorned with work by local artists) with ultramodern features (a wide-screen plasma television with wireless headphones, wireless Internet access). That makes for a neighborhood café cozy enough for chatting away the afternoon over a cup of Vietnamese coffee ($2.50–$3) and hip enough to be seen tapping on your PowerBook G4. The menu (which, by the way, is projected onto the wall) features café-casual fare: bagels ($1.25); a full line of pastry ($1.75); generous slices of Mrs. Smith’s Bakery’s cakes ($4); and made-to-order deli-style sandwiches ($4–$6). But the real star of the show is the bubble tea, a popular Taiwanese concoction that’s suddenly all the rage here in the US. The " bubbles " are actually chewy, pearl-size balls of tapioca, with a texture very similar to gummy bears, resting at the bottom of a mixture of tea and fruit juices. Usually served cold, bubble tea is drunk through an unusually wide straw. On a recent visit we tried a strawberry version ($3.50/large, $2.75/small), and while I admit to having tried it just for the experience, the stuff’s actually quite good. So I sampled a red-raspberry version, too. My companion, opting for safer ground, went with a classic root-beer float ($3.50), conjuring creamy memories of summer afternoons on the porch. We noticed that the service was quite slow, but June Bug Café is quickly becoming a popular destination for the hip and thirsty. June Bug Café, located at 403A Centre Street, in Jamaica Plain, is open daily, from 7 a.m. to 11 p.m. Call (617) 522-2393, or visit www.junebugcafe.com
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