'Rooted In Our Community': Blended Health & Smoothie Bar Marks 5 Years In Downtown Glenview

GLENVIEW, IL — Opening a new business is challenging, but doing it at the height of the pandemic presented some unique obstacles. Blended Health & Smoothie Bar, which served its first of many healthy food offerings in June 2020, managed to stay afloat and continues to thrive five years later in downtown Glenview.

"Early on, we decided we were going to be rooted in our community, and support them as much as they support us," April Doremus, owner of the Harlem Avenue business as well as an Evanston store, tells Patch. "We pride ourselves in taking as active a role as we can in helping support other small businesses in the area, being active members of the chamber, and giving back as much as we can to District 34 and Glenbrook South."

While smoothies are clearly a specialty at Blended Health & Smoothie Bar, the menu is filled with plenty of other healthy options like bowls, protein waffle and egg bites, juices and cleanses. Menu items are added and changed based on the wants and needs of the customers. Blended Health & Wellness even offers one-to-one and small group health and wellness coaching.

"Offering a healthy product and a positive atmosphere, while connecting with our customers, has allowed us to stand out and build strong relationships within our community," Doremus said. "We heavily support those who support us. We don't know any other way than opening a new business in a pandemic, so we took the challenges as they came."

To commemorate Blended's five-year anniversary, the Glenview Chamber of Commerce held a ribbon-cutting ceremony at 950 Harlem Ave. on Thursday. Doremus said a champagne celebration followed the ribbon-cutting.

According to Doremus, 80 percent of Blended's customers are in the store multiple times a week. Those customers include community leaders, first responders, teenagers, seniors and everyone in-between.

"We have no age demographic because being treated kindly and enjoying a healthy blend is universal," Doremus said. "The outpouring of love and support we get from the community is unmatched."

Throughout the week, Blended has been holding contests, raffles and specials. From 9 a.m. to 11 a.m. Saturday, the business is hosting "Blended With Badge," where members of the Glenview Police Department will be on site to meet and mingle with customers.

With five years under its belt, Blended Health & Smoothie Bar now looks to future anniversaries.

"In this ever-changing economy, we are elated to be a small business that can celebrate such an amazing milestone," Doremus said. "We take very day as it comes, and being able to look back at where we started, and how much we have grown in five years, I would say that even we are surprised with the support the community has given us and the success we have been able to achieve."

To learn more about Blended Health & Smoothie Bar, check out the website here.