by Katie Stackable | Nov 8, 2015 | Blog
BY FAST CASUAL – Vitality Bowls, which specializes in açaí bowls — a thick blend of the Amazon’s antioxidant-rich açaí berry, topped with a variety of superfoods — announced this week the opening of its café in Castro Valley, California. The new franchise location will be the first for Debra Ochoa, who plans to open one additional café in San Leandro, according to a company press release.
“From the first bite I took from an açaí bowl at Vitality Bowls, I knew it was the start of a new journey for me,” Ochoa said. “The incredible taste of the fresh ingredients and the feeling it provides is just an unbeatable combination.”
Slated to open Dec. 10, the new restaurant will be located at 20668 Rustic Dr., and will be the 16th Vitality Bowls café in California joining the 19 locations based nationwide.
“Simply put, we created Vitality Bowls to be a place where health-conscious individuals can go for a nutritional meal,” said Tara Gilad, founder and owner of Vitality Bowls. “We believe that healthy food can be an option for fast casual food and we are excited to have Debra on board. We look forward to seeing Debra grow her business in Castro Valley and sharing the Vitality Bowls message with the community.”
Launched in 2011, the concept began franchising last year and within the past 12 months has signed development deals for nearly 40 units. Today, there are currently 19 open and operating with additional units in development.
by Katie Stackable | Oct 29, 2015 | Blog
BY QSR – The superfood sensation that is energizing the nation’s healthy-food movement is now providing kids with additional delicious alternatives to traditional fast-casual offerings.
Recognizing that children have fallen in love with the superfood café right alongside their parents, Vitality Bowls, which specializes in açaí bowls, a thick blend of the Amazon’s antioxidant-rich açaí berry topped with a selection of superfood ingredients, announced the creation of new menu items geared specifically for kids.
“It’s so important that children learn the value of putting quality, healthy foods into their bodies at a young age,” says Tara Gilad, chief operating officer of Vitality Bowls. “Vitality Bowls was founded as the solution to our daughter’s nutritional requirements after discovering she had severe food allergies, so it was only natural for us to develop a menu entirely for kids. Our new additions to the kids menu really reflect our passion for providing healthy, delicious, and nutritious options for everyone who walks into our cafés—starting with the tiniest of our customers.” read more
Some of the delicious options available to children on the new menu include:
· Sunsation Smoothie (lemonade, açaí, bananas, and strawberries, plus an option to add spinach)
· Kids Açaí Bowl (organic açaí, apple juice, bananas, and strawberries, topped with organic granola, bananas, and strawberries)
· Grilled Cheese Sandwich (Mozzarella and Provolone cheeses on white or whole wheat bread)
· Fresh Carrot Orange Juice
· Chocolate Frozen Banana (frozen banana dipped in chocolate)
The new additions will begin rolling out in Vitality Bowls cafés across the country in the coming days. It showcases the superfood café’s unique ability to create great-tasting, antioxidant-rich menu items for anyone and everyone seeking to eat healthier. All dishes and beverages are made to order for each customer. No ingredient fillers such as ice, frozen yogurt, added sugar or artificial preservatives are used, giving the purest taste possible to each menu item.
by Katie Stackable | Oct 8, 2015 | Blog
BY THE MERCURY NEWS – Tasty açaí berries are the core of the eating philosophy of Sunnyvale’s newest restaurant, although its cold, fruit-based lunches are a concept that may take adjustment for some.
“Because it’s cold you feel it’s a dessert rather than a lunch,” says Praveen Kumar, owner of the Vitality Bowls. “Even I had to take time to get used to it. It was just after realizing the health benefits rather than me eating carbs. Me being Asian, my life is pretty much eating rice or wheat. I used to eat a lot of salads and I lost a lot of weight during that time, but I didn’t find that really nourishing because it’s just a filler.” read more
Vitality Bowls started in San Ramon in 2011, but quickly found that its fruit-based meals struck a chord with diners and since has spread to other locations throughout the Bay Area.
Founders Tara and Roy Gilad were impressed by açaí as a street food in Brazil and decided to bring it back with them to use as the main ingredient and base for healthy meals.
The bowls at Vitality Bowls start with a base of what Kumar calls a frozen fruit blend–frozen açaí or other fruit high in antioxidants blended with different fruits but no additional juices or sugars, topped with granola for crunch and then additional sliced fruit.
Kumar began eating at the Vitality Bowls in Pleasanton’s Stoneridge Shopping Center while looking for a healthy lunch option that also catered to his vegetarianism. After eating lunch there for nearly a month he was sold on the concept and decided to take a break from his job as a developer of iPhones and iPads to open his own Vitality Bowls in Sunnyvale.
“I moved out of Sunnyvale in 2009, but it always has a place in my heart. I live in Morgan Hill but I feel like Sunnyvale is where I want to be, but it’s too expensive for me to get a good home,” said Kumar.” I used to live right on El Camino and Wolfe, and so I was used to that area, I couldn’t find any healthy eating options. Other places offer healthy bowls but put in fillers.”
Besides the bowls, the restaurant offers paninis, smoothies and snacks. Everything can be made gluten-free or in other ways to accommodate people with allergies.
“I’m a vegetarian, but I learned to make even the meat paninis,” Kumar said. “I didn’t eat it, but I was slicing the meat and my dad said, ‘Wow, you must really believe in this.’”
Vitality Bowls is located at 605 Tasman Drive in Sunnyvale.
by Katie Stackable | Sep 22, 2015 | Blog
BY THE MERCURY NEWS — East County’s first superfood café is hoping to boost customer’s diets with ultra-healthy foods like acai and kale served in a variety of bowls, smoothies, salads, paninis and juices. read more
Vitality Bowls opens this week at The Streets of Brentwood next to Starbucks and Red Robin. The cafe will be preparing items like the Detox Bowl, which includes organic acai, almond milk, flaxseed, kale, spirulina, honey, almonds and a variety of fresh fruits.
“Here in Brentwood, there are not a lot of healthy food concepts. It is an underserved location in terms of healthy food,” café owner Ameet Seth said.
Vitality Bowls started with its San Ramon location four years ago and now has 15 locations, including cafes in Walnut Creek, Pleasant Hill, Dublin, Lafayette, Redwood City and San Francisco.
“We have offerings that nobody has in this area. We carry things that you can’t just go to your average restaurant to get,” said the company’s founder, Tara Gilad.
According to Gilad, the superfood movement is not just a trend because people are more mindful about what they eat these days, including the next generation. Vitality Bowls makes organic salads and their meats are preservative-free.
“Everyone wants to eat healthy and the new generation eats healthier than we did when we grew up,” she said. “Every bowl is absolutely delicious and topped differently. Our younger generation is standing in line to eat our bowls.”
Vitality Bowls also tries to recruit and mentor young employees from the surrounding area. The Brentwood location has hired 27 part-time employees with many from Liberty, Freedom and Deer Valley high schools.
Although Gilad studied health science in college and was raised by organic farmers, her true inspiration for creating Vitality Bowls was her daughter’s severe food allergies.
“We started this business for her. We created a restaurant that is allergy-safe,” Gilad said. The company also tries to be completely all-natural and healthy. For example, their smoothies consist of all fruits and vegetables with no additional sugar and are almost half as many calories as the typical smoothie served at a health food café.
“We are trying to promote a healthy lifestyle and tell people that it isn’t a side dish served here,” Seth said. “You will be full and feel fantastic after it.”
Check out www.vitalitybowls.com.
by Katie Stackable | Sep 16, 2015 | Blog
BY BUSINESS DEN – A California restaurant chain with a menu that features exotic fruits will open its first Colorado location in December, and it has two more locations planned through 2017.
Fast-casual concept Vitality Bowls’ first Colorado franchise will open in December at 2702 E. Third Ave. in Cherry Creek. read more
“Colorado’s a lot like California where people are active and eat well,” Vitality Bowls founder Tara Gilad said. “We looked all over the metro area and decided we wanted to open somewhere near the core of the city where people are into healthy food. So we decided to go to Cherry Creek.”
The chain specializes in yogurt-like berry bowls, using ingredients like acai berries, dragon fruit and flax seed. The menu also features paninis, soups, salads and smoothies for the less adventurous eater.
Franchisee Venkat Duvvuri will open the 1,400-square-foot Cherry Creek store. Duvvuri signed a 36-month lease at $40 per square foot per year, he said. The restaurant is his first crack at running a Vitality Bowls franchise.
“We were looking for a business opportunity and we wanted to introduce this,” Duvvuri said. “Our goal is to open up three locations in Colorado, one in Boulder next year and then another the year after that.”
Duvvuri said he’ll hire between 20 and 25 employees to staff the restaurant.
Vitality Bowls uses in-house architects to draw up plans for all of its locations. The company is getting construction bids on the project. Michael P. Griffin of ERA Herman Group Real Estate brokered the deal.
Vitality Bowls will move into a space on Third Avenue. Photo by George Demopoulos. Gilad said that startup costs for a franchisee average around $200,000, including franchising fees and inventory.
“Younger generations are much more educated and interested in what they put into their bodies, so we’re very popular with them – kids, junior high students and young adults,” she said.
About 50 percent of diners eat in-house, with the rest taking their food to-go, Gilad said. The company also caters and will run catering out of its Denver location.
Gilad founded the company with her husband in California in 2011. The couple opened their second location five months later and a third a year after that. In 2013, the company began selling franchises.
The chain currently has 15 locations.
by Katie Stackable | Sep 14, 2015 | Blog
BY DALLAS FOOD NERD – If you are unfamiliar with Açaí Bowls®, it’s this magical treat made out of frozen, blended açaí berry with toppings ranging from fruit to granola. Basically, it’s “healthy ice cream” and I have a strange obsession with it. I typically make them at home but didn’t quite like the amount of work that goes into it. The clean up is even worse! I’ve always wished that there was a place nearby where I could get an Açaí Bowl® instead of having to deal with the chaos of making them. My dream came true when Vitality Bowls opened up a location in Irving, TX last month! read more
Vitality Bowls is conveniently placed in the Las Colinas Village shopping center just behind Starbucks and Taco Diner. They’ve got ample seating, which is perfect for the amount of customers that stop by. I was honestly surprised with how many people were coming in and were loving it! I feel like Açaí Bowls® are still somewhat of a foreign concept to Texans but it was nice to see how many locals were eager to try it during their lunch break. There were even customers who admitted that it was their second or third time at Vitality Bowls just for that week! I obviously don’t blame them. There are plenty of other options to choose from besides their bowls: smoothies, juices, and paninis are also part of their menu.
Their Ham Panini was actually the perfect size for consumption, and an even better deal when added to a bowl (for just +$3.99)! The combination of the sun dried tomatoes and ham was satisfying along with the warm and perfectly-pressed bread. I definitely recommend it! The dijon may have been a little too strong for me, but I’m not a fan of mustard to begin with. My husband said it was fine, though.
My husband tried Vitality Bowls’ Bowl of the Month: The Brain Bowl. Aptly named because it has ingredients that help improve memory and encourage the growth of neural stem cells! It’s made from the combination of açaí and acerola with coconut milk, gingko, kale, banana, pineapple, kiwi, granola, blueberries, and chia seeds. He’s generally a picky eater but he devoured this!
I ordered the Dragon Bowl, which is by far my favorite item on their menu. It’s a blend of açaí and dragon fruit, mango juice, bananas, and more. Topped with strawberries, kiwi, goji berries, bee pollen, almonds, and honey (with extra granola), it’s definitely an explosion of flavors and textures! We only got medium sized bowls, but you get a better deal with a large bowl and you can just take home whatever you don’t finish. My sweet-toothed self thoroughly enjoyed this bowl. I’d choose it over ice cream any day!
If you’re trying to introduce healthy components into your palate but are a little wary, Vitality Bowls is a great starting point. They are very knowledgeable about every ingredient that makes it into the bowls and will help you make sure that you find something that you’ll like. If you’re not ready to dive into their Açaí Bowls®, you can always stop by to try their smoothies, juices, or paninis!
Vitality Bowls is located at 5910 N. MacArthur Blvd Suite 139 Irving, TX 75039.
Recent Comments