Challenge

For years, Organic Avenue (OA) represented the pinnacle of New York City’s juice bar trend, providing a devoted clientele with organic, cold press juices supplemented by a small selection of raw foods. In an effort to broaden its consumer base, Organic Avenue made the choice to considerably expand the existing menu to incorporate cooked, hot and cold food options. OA consequently partnered with SPE Certified to facilitate this evolution because of our unique culinary and nutritional skill set.

Specific challenges:

• Expanding offerings to appeal to a more mainstream audience
• Rolling out new, hot and cold vegan foods while maintaining across-the-board culinary excellence and nutritional balance
• Designing a scalable business model while prioritizing core brand values such as organic sourcing, health and taste
• Incorporating new menu items to reflect innovation and seasonality

Solution

SPE’s nutrition and culinary team worked with Organic Avenue to test out and implement a lineup of new recipes. To realize OA’s vision, we:

• Developed a grab-and-go food line incorporating wraps, grain bowls, salads, soups and side dishes
• Conceived a rotation of seasonal menus, with ingredients corresponding to summer, winter, spring and now fall 2014
• Provided nutrition labels and nutrition statements for each new offering
• Developed the “Feed Your Brain” brochure nutrition messaging, implemented across all 12 locations
• Helped introduce new cooking facilities and back-of-house structures to enable food production beyond raw food

Result

Organic Avenue has now broadened its appeal to entice patrons across a wide spectrum of dietary preferences, for the first time serving up cooked vegan foods in addition to its original juices and raw foods. Innovative flavors — kimchi, plum and spicy avocado among them — and prime seasonings, like himalayan pink salt, ginger and cold-pressed olive oil spice up every offering and ensure the pairing of paramount taste with sound nutrition.

Providing OA with the expertise vital to brand evolution, SPE Certified also facilitated patrons’ understanding and appreciation of this shift: our communications platform features a dedicated page on the SPE Certified website, an SPE Certified Q & A in Organic Avenue’s “Feed Your Brain” in-store brochure and the distinctive SPE Certified logo on each certified item’s “belly band” so that customers can seek us out. 

To maximize visibility and impact, SPE Certified’s April 2014 launch with OA occurred concurrent with the opening of two state-of-the-art Organic Avenue flagships in Bryant Park and Park Avenue South. From an initial pair of stores to a sleek, growing fleet of 12 Manhattan locations, Organic Avenue’s rapid growth telegraphs the success of its evolution.

Innovation within our partnership continues: the SPE team is currently developing a new rotation of menu items based on organic ingredients available with the turn of the season. The ultimate objective for Organic Avenue is to offer a 100% SPE-certified menu, a final step towards fully endorsing its guarantee of nutrition and great taste.