Baton Rouge now has two places to get its ViVi Bubble Tea fix. The Taiwanese- and Korean-inspired chain held a grand opening Monday for its second Baton Rouge location, a 2,200-square-foot shop at 8342 Perkins Road, Studio C, serving bento boxes, street food and more than 65 beverages daily from 11 a.m. to 8:30 p.m.
The new spot sits next to Rotolo's and Bao Vietnamese Kitchen, in a space formerly occupied by King Kong, according to The Advocate. The location held a soft opening on Oct. 22 before its full grand opening four days later. It marks ViVi's second storefront in the city, following the original Baton Rouge shop that opened at 11230 Florida Blvd. back in 2018.
A Growing Global Footprint Lands on Perkins Road
ViVi Bubble Tea traces its roots to 2007 and now counts more than 100 locations worldwide, per the same report. The brand's own site lists more than 100 stores spread across four continents and 13 countries, according to vivibubbletea.com. The Perkins Road shop is still being registered with Google Maps, and assistant manager Elena Zhou has encouraged online customers to double-check the address so they do not confuse it with the Florida Boulevard location.
Delivery was expected to become available at the new shop in the days following its opening, the station's report notes. The menu pulls inspiration mainly from Taiwanese and Korean cuisines, mixing street food, bento boxes and drinks under one roof. Zhou said Asian street food has recently gained popularity, a trend the new menu seems built to capture.
Bento Boxes, Popcorn Chicken and a 17-Drink Signature Lineup
The teriyaki bento box anchors the food menu, ranging from $12.99 to $16.99 depending on protein choice — chicken, beef, shrimp, salmon or eel — and arriving with white or fried rice, three dumplings, shrimp tempura and a garden salad with carrot ginger dressing. Popcorn chicken runs $8.25 and comes in pepper salt, curry, spicy, basil and garlic dry-rub flavors; Zhou recommends mixing the garlic and spicy varieties. She also favors the three-piece Taiwanese barbecue sausage, which she describes as carrying a traditional, sweet-and-savory barbecue flavor.
The broader food menu includes french fries, fried squid, gyoza, Korean chicken wings, popcorn shrimp and takoyaki. Zhou described the takoyaki as crispy outside and soft and creamy inside, the bite-sized octopus balls typically topped with takoyaki sauce, Japanese mayonnaise and bonito flakes. ViVi's DoorDash listing separately shows Korean-style wings available in crispy, soy or hot flavors, along with grilled Taiwanese sausages served with garlic cloves, per DoorDash.
On the drink side, ViVi offers 17 signature beverages spanning milk teas, fruit teas, cream floats and cloud slushes. The Oreo cream brulee blends Oreo cookies with milk tea, topped with sea salt foam and creme brulee, while the dragon fruit cream float mixes green tea with dragon fruit and lychee flavors and jasmine tea jelly, also finished with sea salt foam. Zhou's personal favorite is the kumquat lemon tea. Customers can add toppings like chia seeds, strawberry popping boba, tapioca, aloe or coffee jelly for $1 each.
Baton Rouge's Bubble Tea Scene Keeps Expanding
The city's bubble tea market has been crowded for a while, with early entrants including MoMo Tea in Ichiban Square, ViVi on Florida Boulevard and Vanilla Sweet House in Acadian-Perkins Plaza, according to 225 Baton Rouge. Newer arrival Teatery Tea & Tapioca operates its flagship on Corporate Boulevard, in the same shopping center as Maxwell's Market, offering tea, fruit tea, coffee, milk drinks, slushies, chamoyada, smoothies, yogurt, pastries and cakes. Teatery owner Hau Le, who previously worked at three bubble tea shops in Houston before moving back to Baton Rouge, has said he hopes to expand into New Orleans and Denham Springs after growing further around the capital city — a sign of just how much appetite remains for boba shops across the region.
