Smoothie Express is Getting a Brick & Mortar Store
Smoothie Express Minibar
It's always nice to see good people win. We might have shed a couple thug tears when we read Smoothie Express' instagram announcement.
“We started Smoothie Express from a friend’s kitchen in 1004, after a month we were asked to leave so we had to close the kitchen, pack up and leave. We went knocking from door to door in V.I. looking a place to collocate our kitchen. We were passionate about Smoothie Express and our vision which is to help people achieve their health goals by making awesome healthy meals easily accessible to them.
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We found a guest house and moved there, paying rent by splitting what we made in half! You see, we were asked not to allow our customers in the compound so as not to disturb the peace and quiet and frankly our kitchen was too tiny to even accommodate any customers. A customer even called us out on twitter saying ‘she thought we were shady, possibly dealing drugs because the security man at the gate wouldn’t let her in.
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We stayed there for about 18months (this was the most significant time of Smoothie Express) and we endured. In that little kitchen, we were happy fulfilling our dreams. We sold lots of Smoothies and grew our customer base till we were ready to move into a bigger kitchen. Again, we went in knocking on doors in V.I. to find a bigger kitchen space to rent and not having to split what we made in half. We also wanted to accommodate more deliveries and also pick up customers. We found a space and moved into it and it’s been our home for the past one year even though it’s not been perfect.
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Fast forward to now, we are opening our first Smoothie Express Minibar, a one stop, quick service, healthy food and beverage bar. We won’t stop here, we would continue till we plant our Minibars in as many locations as possible in Nigeria. We are grateful for the time it took us to open our first Minibar, it was truly a learning experience for us. We learnt tenacity, excellence, patience and more.
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Whenever you see our logo anywhere, know that you see the sweat, bravery, hard work and perseverance of two, now 27year olds female entrepreneurs who had to make way for their vision to unfold, the amazing Smoothie Express family, suppliers and customers that have stood with us over the years. Thank you.
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Tracy & Omowunmi (Fun fact, we know all the streets in V.I 🤣)”
Business in Lagos is hard so it's nice to read stories like this once in a while.
45 Likes, 2 Comments - Healthy Smoothies Salads Food (@smoothieexpressng) on Instagram: "Lunch is Served! You can now pick up your smoothies and salads also at our minibar at 17 Adeola..."
Featured Restaurants on EatDrinkBot
If you've used the bot recently, you've probably noticed the "Featured Restaurant" addition. It's our first significant update since launch so it's a little exciting.
We've spent most of the year fixing bugs here and there so we're a bit pumped to get out a new feature. Within the next year, we're hoping to to expand the bot's restaurant coverage as far as geography goes. Maybe add a "cuisine search" feature or a reservation aspect to it. The future is bright and stuff.
Six.Thirty Supper Club
We're massive fans of secret supper clubs. It's pretty much everything we tried to achieve with The Lunch Club. If there's anything that drives the culture of food in a city, it's little things like this.
“A dinner party like Lagos has never seen before. No two will ever be the same.”
Mystery locations, secret menus, fun chefs. Six.Thirty feels like the underground supper club that Lagos deserves.
If you're interested, sign up HERE. We have already.
A Case Against Burgers at Restaurants
We retweeted this pretty interesting article yesterday.
The context is America, but we certainly feel the argument works perfectly in Lagos as well. We don't agree with it all, but it helps give some perspective when you compare a burger at South or RSVP with one from BBQ & Cravings. There's definitely a place for both, but that line on restaurant burgers being a bit boring definitely rings true.