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Northern Virginia-based health food chain Greenheart Juice Shop will soon open up its first D.C. shop. The company, which operates stores in Aldie, Leesburg, and Middleburg, with another one close to opening in Vienna, is moving into the former dry cleaning business at 3345 Prospect Street NW this summer. Its cafe there will offer avocado toast, salads, smoothie bowls, and bottles of cashew chai that are full of blended nuts, medjool dates, vanilla bean, and Himalayan pink salt.
Greenheart Juice Shop makes all of its products in-house, including granola, cashew milk, and walnut-based taco “meat.” The company also buys local produce for salads and 18-ounce bottles of juice (both $11). The brand has a goal of spending $1 million at nearby farms. Willowsford Farm, a certified organic facility in Ashburn, Virginia, will plant seeds just for the juice brand in the beginning of the growing season.
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“A lot of juice companies will go heavy on apple and cucumber and not spinach and kale, which you’re really getting the nutrients from,” Greenheart Juice Shop founder Alicia Swanstrom says. “We’re the opposite. You can taste the difference.”
Greenheart Juice Shop’s Georgetown location — its first outpost in the District — stems from a previous collaboration with neighbor Down Dog Yoga. The shop will feature bright pink neon signage and concrete floors with gold inlay, but the focus will be on colorful, minimalist glass bottles of Greenheart’s juice, including varieties like the popular “MJ” green juice, “Naked Roots” beet juice, and “Liquid Gold” carrot juice.
In addition to packaged salads, soup, and granola, the Georgetown location will sell made-to-order superfood smoothies, açaí bowls, quinoa bowls, and a sweet potato waffle topped with coconut cream fresh berries and matcha powder. There’s even an event space, so when the pandemic is over, Greenheart can host in-store tastings of its juices.
Greenheart is growing despite the pandemic. Despite her worries about the COVID-19 crisis taking out her business, Swanstrom says she found customers wanted to prioritize a healthy diet.
“We were able to double our sales from last year,” she says.
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Swanstrom was already making plans to start up home delivery and online orders, so she sped up the process in 2020.
She’s still committed to farmers market stands and standalone shops, too. The company’s fourth store opens Saturday, March 27, in Vienna. The space at 208 Dominion Road NE is right off the Washington and Old Dominion trail.
“In-person connection is so important,” Swanstrom says. “For us, community is so ingrained in us and at our core. Just shipping online, there would be something missing.”