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Juice and smoothie bars are everywhere in Denver these days. Proof: A recent Google search for “acai bowls near me” yielded almost a dozen options within a mile radius of 5280’s LoDo offices.
You can add one more option to the list when Whole Sol Blend Bar opens on Chestnut Street tomorrow morning. Business partners (and fiancées) Phil Dumontet and Alexa Squillaro moved to Colorado from the East Coast to open the project, which they hope will be the first location of many—a Boulder outpost at Pearl and 14th streets is slated to open in September and the duo intends to bring their healthful “bols” to Sloan’s Lake and other Colorado cities in the near future.
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The pair met while training for the New York City Marathon, and their health-oriented lifestyle and combined professional experience makes them the perfect team to run quick-service Whole Sol: Dumontet founded food delivery business Dashed (which he sold to GrubHub before moving to Colorado) and Squillaro earned a masters of nutrition degree at Columbia University. “We want to share what fuels us,” Dumontet says of Whole Sol’s 100 percent gluten-free, organic menu. “The goal is to make it easy for our customers to make healthy choices.”
How do Whole Sol’s bols compare to others around town? While many smoothie bowls taste more like dessert than breakfast, Whole Sol’s are more austere. “The OG” combines unsweetened acai with bananas and almond butter for a not-too-sweet treat, and the “I Like You Matcha” is a healthy-tasting, balanced green blend of matcha tea powder, kale, spinach, banana, pineapple, almond butter, and unsweetened coconut water. The bowls come topped with fresh fruit and flavorful texture-enhancers such as shredded coconut, 88 Acres seed granola, or buckwheat groats.
Not feeling smoothies or juice? There are also savory choices, such as the “Primal” bol (warm shredded cabbage and carrots, two poached eggs, avocado, and tangy hemp seed pesto) and toasts built on Free Bread topped with the likes of Treeline Treenut Cheeses cashew cheese, sprouts, sauerkraut, and balsamic.
Whatever you do, don’t leave Whole Sol without experiencing the whimsical scratch-and-sniff banana wallpaper in the bathrooms (pictured above).
If you go: To celebrate its grand opening on Wednesday, July 18 at 9 a.m., Whole Sol will give the first 100 people in line a $100 gift card and membership in its “Sol Mates” reward program. Whole Sol will be open Monday through Friday from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m., and Saturday and Sunday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.
1735 Chestnut Place, 970-343-4712
