Playa Bowls Opens New Upper East Side Location

UPPER EAST SIDE, NY — It's bowl time on the Upper East Side.

Rolling off of their success in Lenox Hill, Playa Bowls has opened a second location on Lexington Avenue and East 84th Street, at 1248 Lexington Ave.

Lines wrapped around the corner before their 10 a.m. opening on Tuesday, as fans of their signature fruit bowls filled with tasty bases like acai, pitaya, coconut, kale, banana or mango waited for a select number of free treats during the rainy morning, according to social media.

Playa Bowls, which is best known for serving up fruit bowls and smoothies, first opened in New York City on the Upper West Side in 2022, and followed up with their first Upper East Side location — on Second Avenue between East 76th and 77th streets — later that year.

The new franchise outpost is not owned by the same father-daughter team who own the Upper West Side and Second Avenue Playa Bowls — plus the recently-opened bakery on the same block — but fans of the fruity bowls will find the same offerings eight blocks north.

Outside of its fruit bowls and smoothies, it also serves up coffees, cold-press juices, and poke bowls. The chain originated in New Jersey, and now has more than 100 locations across the country.