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VITALITY BOWLS CAFÉ

by | Jun 6, 2016 | Blog

BY MIAMI SMITH – Vitality Bowls serves huge fruit bowls with natural ingredients like: honey, bee pollen, granola and nuts. All the bowls are serve cold but they do not contain ice and most of the ingredients are organic, no added sugar, no artificial ingredients or preservatives. Bowls come in two sizes (medium and large), both seemed huge to us, so unless you are extremely hungry, we suggest you order medium size and share it with somebody. They also offer smoothies, paninis and coffee, among other things. A healthy choice packed with vitamins and minerals. read more

Meet a 19-year-old restaurant franchisee

Meet a 19-year-old restaurant franchisee

by | Jun 2, 2016 | Blog

BY THE DENVER BUSINESS JOURNAL – While some of Zak Solis’ friends headed to college in 2015 and others went off to work, the new high school graduate made a more unusual request of his parents: Could you please buy me a food business?

Solis had started cooking at age 10 and had worked in his parents’ Manitou Springs restaurant one summer. After he spent time working in a nearby pizzeria, they decided that the young man was ready.

And late this summer or early this fall, Solis will open a franchised location of the Vitality Bowls Superfood Cafe chain in the Promenade at Castle Rock retail complex. read more

Tara Gilad, founder and COO of the California-headquartered company, acknowledged that taking a chance on a 19-year-old franchisee is unusual; the next-youngest franchisee in the chain is 31.

But after meeting Solis and his parents — and being assured of support for the business by his mother, a vice president of marketing — she felt he was worth the risk, and is working closely with him as he prepares to open just the second Vitality Bowls location in Colorado.

“It’s pretty amazing that he, at such a young age, has that passion. His sanctuary is in a kitchen,” Gilad said of Solis, who had asked even before he graduated high school to get a food truck — a request shot down by his folks.

“He has determination. He has drive. He’s super-responsible. He has super work ethic. It’s amazing he’s only 19,” Gilad said.”

Blind in one eye, Solis was not a good student in the classroom setting. But from a young age he took to cooking, putting his own touches on home recipes even before he hit high school and watching hours of cooking videos online to better perfect his technique.

He chose Vitality Bowls because he liked the concept — creating a blend out of high- nutrition foods like acai berries and bananas, topping them with additions like granola and honey and serving them for breakfast or lunch — and wanted to serve up healthy foods rather than classic fast-casual recipes.

He’s currently in training at the Cherry Creek location of the chain, even as he is searching for signage and for contractors to put up the Castle Rock store.

Solis isn’t content to follow recipes, however. He already is suggesting some new combinations that the 23-store chain can try, Gilad said. And he’s toying around with added products such as organic dog treats that it could sell to customers.

Solis is aware that he is jumping into business operations at an age when many of his peers are looking for seasonal jobs in similar shops. But he not only believes in a saying his parents taught him — that it’s better to work for yourself than someone else — but also is looking ahead to opening even more locations and expanding his operations.

“I love the feeling, because all my friends are now either in college or just working,” Solis said. “So, knowing that I’m starting what I dreamed about is pretty great.”

Operators share their top recruitment strategies

by | May 20, 2016 | Blog

BY NATION’S RESTAURANT NEWS – “We recruit a lot of our top talent through employee referrals. We also offer a fast-paced growth path to corporate positions for those who excel, which can be a huge incentive for career-driven individuals. Our corporate locations also offer an aggressive bonus plan for all managers.” — Tara Gilad, co-founder and COO, Vitality Bowls read more

Leadership Lessons: Tara Gilad, COO of Vitality Bowls

by | May 5, 2016 | Blog

BY BUSINESS NEWS DAILY – Gilad explains the experiences that helped form her personal leadership philosophy: “I’m lucky to come from a family of entrepreneurs, which inspired me to want to start my own business when I was in college. Prior to Vitality Bowls, I owned two other successful businesses, so I learned a lot about leadership through first-hand experience. With age, I’ve learned so much about working with all types of people. read more

“I’ve found that the best way to lead is by example. I try to continually show my passion for healthy food and the brand, so it’s translated at each location. I also try to build strong relationships by maintaining open lines of communication. I try to take each franchisee’s ideas into consideration and we have monthly and weekly calls to check-in. The most important thing is doing everything I can to help them be successful.”

It’s all about acaí at new Roseville restaurant

It’s all about acaí at new Roseville restaurant

by | May 4, 2016 | Blog

BY THE SACRAMENTO BEE – There’s a world of difference between doing electrical work on nuclear submarines and dishing up heaping servings of “superfoods” made with acaí berries imported from Brazil.

But that’s the transition made by Roseville resident Dana Verducci, who later this month is opening the region’s first Vitality Bowls cafe, part of a fast-growing Bay Area-based chain.

The cafe, at 3988 Douglas Blvd. in Roseville, will have 14 varieties of acaí bowls – ranging from the vitamin-boosting Warrior Bowl to an almond milk and kale Detox Bowl – along with smoothies, panini sandwiches, salads and organic coffee.

She was on a softball team at the time and realized there were no indoor batting cages on the islands. So, in her first entrepreneurial turn, she opened Hawaii’s only two cages before moving to California a decade ago to take care of her health issues and find better schools for her kids.

As a classroom volunteer in Roseville, she saw the need for a pre-packaged back-to-school kit filled with pens, notebooks and other materials and ended up founding BoxOfSupplies.com, a firm she still owns.

And, more recently, when driving her kids back and forth to sporting events, she realized there was a shortage of healthy food options. Her research led her to Vitality Bowls, which was started in the Bay Area in 2011 and now has 22 locations – most of them franchised sites – in five states.

She’s sold on the superfood concept – fruits and vegetables loaded with vitamins, amino acids and antioxidants that “people in other countries have used for their healing processes (since a time well before) Western civilization.”

In fact, Verducci figures she could use a little nutritional healing herself from the stress of preparing for the May 19 opening of her 1,200-square-foot store near Sierra College Boulevard.

“I’m running on fumes,” she said.
The aim, according to Verducci, is to give people a health choice.

“I can’t tell you how many hamburger joints we have, but if you want to eat something healthy there’s really nothing here,” said Verducci, who is 52.

Meeting a need has been Verducci’s mantra since she lost her nuclear electrician job in Hawaii during military base cutbacks in the early 1990s.

She was on a softball team at the time and realized there were no indoor batting cages on the islands. So, in her first entrepreneurial turn, she opened Hawaii’s only two cages before moving to California a decade ago to take care of her health issues and find better schools for her kids.

As a classroom volunteer in Roseville, she saw the need for a pre-packaged back-to-school kit filled with pens, notebooks and other materials and ended up founding BoxOfSupplies.com, a firm she still owns.

And, more recently, when driving her kids back and forth to sporting events, she realized there was a shortage of healthy food options. Her research led her to Vitality Bowls, which was started in the Bay Area in 2011 and now has 22 locations – most of them franchised sites – in five states.

She’s sold on the superfood concept – fruits and vegetables loaded with vitamins, amino acids and antioxidants that “people in other countries have used for their healing processes (since a time well before) Western civilization.”

In fact, Verducci figures she could use a little nutritional healing herself from the stress of preparing for the May 19 opening of her 1,200-square-foot store near Sierra College Boulevard.

“I’m running on fumes,” she said.