Get ready to power up at the sleek new space. • Recover + Rejuvinate by Rhone smoothie
Photos By Venera Alexandrova
Looking for a super-satisfying, post-workout meal? An alternative spot to meet friends for a drink? Check out the new Barvida on Greenwich Avenue. This organic, vegan smoothie and juice bar from Tara Rose Schreiber and Brennan Branca blends West Coast wellness culture with an East Coast vibe. It’s the third location for the couple, who have also opened shops in Darien (Brennan’s hometown) and New Canaan, before launching in Greenwich, where they now live. The owners bring a sense of playfulness to their healthy cafes—a neon sign on the wall of the lounge-y space reads, “Think Dirty, Eat Clean,” and their celery juice is called “The C Word”— but they were launched with a mission in mind: offering something larger national chains can’t deliver. “Juice bars usually fall into one of two categories. They’re either juices that taste great, but when you look at the menu, they’re laden with sugar and unhealthy ingredients. Or, in the other camp, you have juice bars that are actually healthy, but their juices really don’t taste very good,” Tara says. “We wanted to marry the two and push the industry toward a more progressive approach. We use a lot of herbs, adaptogens, mushrooms and functional ingredients as opposed to just fruit and vegetable blends.”
Each drink is tailored to the customer and the results they want to achieve. Even though you can change any smoothie to suit your preferences, the ones on the menu taste so delicious you may not want to tweak a thing. For an energy reboot, try The Morning Show, which mixes cold-brew coffee with banana, protein, cinnamon, espresso beans and more. Or for a pick-me-up, there’s the Mood Manager with blue spirulina as well as banana, pineapple, dates, housemade almond milk and other ingredients. (“It tastes like the milk in a bowl of Cinnamon Toast Crunch,” one young fan says.)
Most smoothies contain protein, and theirs is a blend derived from peas, brown rice and fava beans. The menu includes several collabs like The Cure by Dr. Katie, an integrative medicine physician in Darien, and the Recover + Rejuvenate by Rhone, introduced to coincide with the launch of the company’s Dreamstate activewear line. If you want to add to a smoothie, the Barvida “power blends” help match ingredients to a goal, such as Energy & Focus with matcha, lion’s mane, cacao and other active boosters, and Immunity with reishi, chaga, lion’s mane, astragulus and camu camu. You can also add extra single ingredients such as L-Glutamine or psyllium husk to get more fiber.
In addition to the superfood smoothies, Barvida serves coffee, cold brew, avocado toast, acai bowls and cold-pressed juices in glass bottles, making it a place that draws regulars. “I feel like we’re seeing a lot of the same people, multiple times a day,” Tara says. “Some will come and get their coffee in the morning and then come back later in the day to get smoothies with their friends.”
MOST POPULAR ORDERS
• The Cure by Dr. Kate
• PB Cacao Powerhouse
• The Mood Manager
OWNERS’ FAVES
Brennan loves the Matcha Machine, with ceremonial-grade matcha, cinnamon, vanilla protein, spirulina and more.
Tara goes for the Recover Me smoothie, because she loves ginger, blended with 13 ingredients, including banana, pineapple, protein and house-made almond milk and cacao ganache.
BARVIDA
28 Greenwich Avenue,
203-485-0366; thebarvida.com