There comes a time when you have to set aside the triple cheese burritos with extra guac and focus your sights on greener pastures—or at least a greener diet. Cue I Love Juice Bar. Little Rock’s latest health movement (yes, we’re calling it now) of juicing points straight to Little Rock’s latest restaurant, located between The Children’s Place and Soma Intimates in the Midtowne Shopping Center.
Cool and collected, this health-focused eatery is part of an organization started by John and Vui Hunt in Nashville, but it’s the Keet family who brought the first branch to The Natural State. If that sounds familiar, it’s because the Keet family did the same thing with fast-casual franchise Taziki’s Mediterranean Café—another favorite of Little Rock locals.
The 1,600-SF space will offer smoothies, juices, “power shots,” essential oils, sandwiches, salads and other options, most vegan and gluten-free. But more than anything, Juice Bar is offering a new way to look at your daily choices.
“The idea is to change not just the way you’re eating, but the way you’re living,” says co-owner Jake Keet. “Generally, the restaurant rule is to only bring in new concepts that you yourself want to eat, and that’s exactly what this is. I’m excited about benefits of this lifestyle, and that we’ll have something like this in our city.”
Not only is the food good for you, but so is the atmosphere. Bright colors and smiling faces welcome you as you come through the door, giving you a shot of energy before you even place your order.
It’s not until you place and receive your order, however, that everything changes. You taste each individual flavor (instead of them all rolling into one like other drinks), “and the thing is, it tastes good,” co-owner and marketing manager Stephanie Keet sums up.
And she’s right; the green juices don’t taste like weeds, the beet drinks don’t make your eyes cross and the ginger doesn’t give you coughing fits. Juice Bar has perfected the art of taking the stuff that’s good to your insides and making it good to your tastebuds.
Part of that goodness extends to the community, a pivotal part of the restaurant’s model. It’s all about local partnerships, local relationships, local produce. One of those relationships is with Dunbar Community Garden, who even gets Juice Bar’s compost in exchange for fresh flowers.
As far as the menu goes, customer favorites include Sweet Greens (apple, kale, spinach, cucumber, parsley and lemon), Berry Good (blueberry, banana, cashews, lemon and coconut milk) and Orange You Glad (carrot, apple, pineapple, lemon, ginger and mint). In case you were wondering, yes, Orange You Glad actually tastes like happiness.
“It’s exciting because it’s real food,” says co-owner Tommy Keet. “It’s such an interesting, wonderful, timely concept, and it’s perfect for Little Rock.”
We couldn’t agree more.
I Love Juice Bar is open Monday-Friday from 7 a.m. – 6 p.m., and on Saturday from 8:30 a.m. – 4:30 p.m. To learn more about I Love Juice Bar and to view the complete menu, click here.
And just in case you were curious, here are some of their staff favorites:
- Tommy Keet – Green Smoothie
- Jake Keet – Sweet Greens
- Stephanie Keet – We Got the Beet
- Barkley Boyd (operating partner) – Orange You Glad
