Juice Shops Now Come With Side of Vegetables

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Restaurants and shops offering more pressed vegetable juices and leafy green smoothies have been sprouting up all over Los Angeles.

In January, L.A. smoothie and juice franchise Robeks Corp. overhauled its menu to add more vegetables to the lineup. Now, in addition to the veggies the chain has always carried, such as beets, carrots and spinach, Robeks locations also offer customers fresh-pressed kale, cucumber and celery.

Following suit, smoothie chain Jamba Inc. of Emeryville last week reopened its Jamba Juice concept store in Santa Monica after redesigning it to support a more nutritious, juice-focused platform. The store, which now offers customers kale and beets in their juice, was the first of up to 100 stores Jamba plans to remodel this year.

Pressed Juicery, a third, smaller chain in West Los Angeles, is expanding to offer its veggie-loaded juices more widely. The juicery opened an outpost in Beverly Hills last week at 430 N. Bedford Drive. The 200-square-foot shop is the sixth for the chain, not including a juice truck based in Malibu that stops along the Pacific Coast Highway.

Greenleaf Gourmet Chopshop, a salads and sandwiches lunch spot in Beverly Hills, opened a juice bar last month where customers can build their own fruit and vegetable juice blend.

Chad Bailey, chief marketing officer for Robeks, said juice and smoothie businesses are adding more vegetables to the menu in part because consumers are increasingly health conscious.

“I think, overall, America has really come to its senses about what is food, and that not all calories are created equal,” he said.

In a store Robeks used to test its new veggie-heavy menu, juice sales reportedly spiked to 25 percent of total sales from 12 percent with the old menu.

Bailey said that’s because Robeks consumers buy into the concept of “pay now or pay later.”

“You can take the time to eat the right kinds of food now,” he said, “or have the expenses of potentially being more sick and incurring big medical bills later on.”

Revolving Door

Adam Fleischman, Allen Ravert and chef Anthony Carron announced last week that they will open a third location of 800 Degrees Neapolitan Pizzeria, their fast-casual pizza concept. The restaurant, at 120 Wilshire Blvd. in Santa Monica, will open later this year. The 5,000-square-foot space will seat about 120 and serve Italian sandwiches in addition to pizzas. Their second location, in the upgraded Tom Bradley International Terminal at Los Angeles International Airport, will open this spring. … Dr. J’s Vibrant Café, a health-focused vegan restaurant, will open at Fourth and Main Streets in downtown Los Angeles in June. Owner and executive chef Juliet Tien said the 2,700-square-foot space will seat 100 and feature a tea and smoothie bar as well as a small grocery section. … Matt Schuppel and Sam Shofani will open Shoop’s 131 this month in downtown El Segundo, in the space formerly occupied by Schat’s Bakery. … See’s Candies Inc. opened a shop at the Grove last month. … L.A. fashion brand Citizens of Humanity opened a temporary concept shop at 8747 Beverly Blvd. in West Hollywood last month. In addition to its own clothing brand, the 2,000-square-foot shop features accessories, home décor, photography, food and art by other local brands. The shop will be open for six months. … Alejandro Alcondez Mexican Grill opened in Arcadia last month at 57 Wheeler Ave. … Big-box discount retailer Big Lots Stores Inc. in Columbus, Ohio, opened a store in Northridge last week at 8960 Tampa Ave. … Giacomo Mattioli, who owns luxury car dealership Ferrari Maserati Beverly Hills, will open another Ferrari Maserati car dealership near Del Amo Fashion Center in Torrance this spring.


At Your Service

West Hollywood restaurant company Innovative Dining Group, which owns BOA Steakhouse and Sushi Roku restaurants, has named John Dilazzaro chief financial officer. Dilazzaro joined the hospitality group after 13 years with NBCUniversal’s Universal Studios Hollywood, where he most recently served as vice president of financial planning and analysis. … Westwood hotel W Los Angeles has named Melissa Chinchilla head concierge, or W Insider. Chinchilla joined the Westside hotel after 15 years of freelance concierge work. … Glendale restaurant company DineEquity Inc., owner of national chains IHOP and Applebee’s, has named Marie Grimm vice president of culinary innovation for the IHOP brand. Grimm joined IHOP after more than six years at Olive Garden, where she was director of culinary development for Darden Restaurants.

Staff reporter Bethany Firnhaber can be reached at [email protected] or at (323) 549-5225, ext. 235.

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