SereniTea Lounge

SereniTea Lounge opened at 2569 N. Downer Ave. on January 31, 2025, filling part of the former Chancery space that had sat vacant since 2007. It is the third location for the Milwaukee-founded boba brand started by Manpreet Singh, who opened the first SereniTea in 2019 while finishing at Marquette University, and it is the brand's first to double as a bar, pairing a daytime teahouse with an evening cocktail lounge and lounge-style seating.

The non-alcoholic side is the heart of the concept. The standing menu runs deep on fruit teas, milk teas and bubble-tea drinks made with tapioca pearls and bursting boba: a strawberry lemonade with strawberry bursting boba, a peach-and-grapefruit with peach bursting boba, and a mango-passionfruit jasmine tea, alongside items like the Horchata Taro (layered boba, horchata and taro milk foam) and an in-house-brewed Sweet Thai. Every one of these is alcohol-free and available throughout the day, so a non-drinker gets the full menu rather than a single token mocktail.

Writing for Milwaukee Magazine in November 2025, Ann Christenson noted that "the teahouse serves many flavors of fruit tea and milk tea, smoothies and ice cream drinks," describing a room whose ambiance shifts from cafe by day to a more sophisticated cocktail lounge after dark. The venue also pours classic cocktails, wine and sake, which keeps it in hybrid territory, but the extensive, always-available non-alcoholic tea and boba program is what makes it a real destination for sober guests on Downer Avenue.