Empanada restaurant Bella Luna (formerly called Half Moon Bakery) recently got a new neighbor — one that also has a moon-themed name.
Mooncat Boba Cafe opened in August, joining Bella Luna at the building at 3460 W. 25th St., across the street from MetroHealth Main Campus in the Clark-Fulton neighborhood. It sells bubble tea and a selection of snacks from 11 a.m. until 8 p.m. Monday through Saturday.
Mooncat owner Chun Wong originally planned to call the boba shop “Sleepy Cafe,” inspired by a sleeping cat symbol from Nikko, Japan, a city he visited while studying abroad. But a few people advised him that the name might not be the best fit for a store that sells caffeinated drinks, he said. He came up with the name Mooncat, which still draws inspiration from the sleeping cat symbol and references the name of his first daughter, “Luna,” which means moon.
It was a coincidence that the names of the neighboring businesses share a common theme, Wong said.
Wong saw the city of Nikko as a “very tranquil” place. He remembers street vendors selling sleeping cat ornaments there, and the image of a sleeping cat has stayed with him over the years.
“It’s just a feeling I got from it. And this is kind of like the feeling I want to bring into my place. It’s just a peaceful little place that you want to stay and enjoy a cup of tea,” he said.
Wong grew up in the Clark-Fulton neighborhood and said it’s “kind of poetic” that he’s now opening a business there. The owners of both Mooncat and Bella Luna hope more businesses will join them in the neighborhood.
Bringing more boba to Cleveland and introducing people to the drink
After graduating from Case Western Reserve University, Wong worked as an electrical engineer. He decided to start a business to have more control over how he spends his time, and he landed on a bubble tea shop because he wants to bring more boba options to Cleveland.
While the city has several restaurants and stores that sell boba, there aren’t very many places in Cleveland primarily dedicated to the drink, he said.
Mooncat sells three different drink styles: milk tea, flavored tea, and slushies. Each type of drink is available in over a dozen flavors that can be paired with a selection of toppings, including jellies, tapioca boba, popping boba, and agar boba (also known as crystal boba). See the full menu on Mooncat’s website. Drinks cost between $4.50 and $5.75, and toppings cost $0.65 each.
The boba shop also offers seasonal specials, and it introduced three pumpkin spice flavored drinks this month.
Wong tried boba tea for the first time in New York when he was 12 or 13. He still remembers the day when his grandma handed him that first cup of bubble tea. Now, he hopes to introduce other people to boba at Mooncat.
“I’m sure someone else out there is having this similar kind of epiphany or experience of being blown (away) by this little delightful drink that you never imagined would work. You know, why would you have something like a snack in the bottom of a cup of tea?” he said, referring to the toppings. “But surprisingly, it works. It worked on me years ago.”
The brown sugar tea and tiger tea (a mix of classic black tea and Thai tea) have been top sellers for Mooncat. Wong also recommends the taro tea and the winter melon tea, which he said is a lesser-known flavor but his wife’s favorite. The coffee milk tea reminds him of “yuan yang,” a “morning drink” mixture of coffee and black tea from Hong Kong, where he lived as a kid before coming to Cleveland.
Mooncat also sells snacks, including veggie spring rolls, waffle fries, fried dumplings, and Taiwanese-style five-spice popcorn chicken, which can be paired with rice and a choice of sauce. The cafe also sells musubi, a Japanese-Hawaiian fusion food made with rice and spam wrapped in seaweed.
Clark-Fulton resident Ebenezer Minaya, a frequent Bella Luna customer, found out about Mooncat while passing by the store.
“One day I saw the sign for bubble tea, and it got my curiosity because I’m a big fan of bubble tea. So I was really excited that we finally got something close and I don’t have to travel so far,” Minaya said.
He first visited Mooncat about three weeks ago and ordered the winter melon tea. “Ever since then, I’ve made it my mission to try every flavor,” Minaya said. He goes to the shop every day or every other day, constantly trying different combinations of flavors and toppings.
Mooncat’s neighbor, Bella Luna, has been at its spot at 3460 W. 25th St. for several years, owner Lyz Otero said. The restaurant struggled through the pandemic, but now business is taking off, she said. Earlier this year, it expanded its menu and changed its name from Half Moon to Bella Luna.
Sometimes customers will buy food from Bella Luna and then go to Mooncat to get their drinks, Otero said. She calls it “teamwork.” “I’m so happy and glad that he’s next door. And I just want more places like that that’ll help improve the neighborhood,” Otero said.
Minaya said that he’s very particular about the boba slushies, and Mooncat is one of the few places to get it right, showing the owner is dedicated to his craft rather than just taking advantage of a trend.
A friendly environment and the Post-it wall
Inside the boba cafe, Mooncat’s logo hangs from a wall decorated in different colors of wood, and there are a few stools near the window. A stuffed animal version of the Mooncat logo also perches on a shelf on the back wall.
The drink counter doubles as a community bulletin board for “happenings around town,” according to a note on the counter. A sign next to stacks of colorful Post-it notes invites customers to “Have Fun and Doodle!” — and add to Mooncat’s growing wall of sticky note drawings and messages.
Wong organized the Post-it notes into different sections: messages in one area, cat-themed drawings in another, and animé in another section. One of the messages reads, “Boba 1st timer! LOVE IT!! You’re Awesome.” Another has a scribble and says, “Grayson Was Here. 5 yo.”
In the late summer, Mooncat held a Post-it art contest, offering free drink vouchers to the winners.
Emily Chang, a recent Cleveland Institute of Art graduate, went to the boba shop with friends who are current seniors at CIA, and they spent part of the day hanging out and making drawings to enter the contest. Chang’s drawing of a cat sitting on a moon and holding a cup of boba tea was a finalist for the grand prize.
My Vu, one of Mooncat’s nine part-time employees, also participated in the contest, drawing bubble tea and cat-shaped musubi. “Parents also bring their kids in to have some fun drinks and snacks and do a little drawing activity with them,” Vu said.
Other times, kids “drag” their parents to the boba shop, knowing exactly what bubble tea they want, while their parents have no idea what to order, Wong said.
Getting started, hopes for more neighborhood businesses
Mooncat’s storefront, which used to be a corner store, has been vacant for about five years, Wong said. He wanted to open earlier in the summer, but a winter storm caused a pipe to burst, and renovating the space took six months, double the estimated three-month timeline.
In its first few months since opening, the boba shop is still growing and getting its name out there. It recently started offering delivery services like DoorDash and Uber Eats and just got a sign that’s more visible from the road.
The store is located on a busy street in a community that’s growing as MetroHealth expands, Wong said. He wants to see this stretch of W. 25th get more attention and hopes the opening of Mooncat will inspire more businesses to open in the neighborhood.
“I definitely want this place to prosper, along with the area. I think West 25th Street is going to get better, and us being here, hopefully it (could) let people know that we can have nice things here, too,” Wong said.
Mooncat Boba Cafe is located at 3460 W. 25th St. For more information and to see the menu offerings, visit the shop’s website and Instagram page.
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