Business & Tech
Juice Up, Detox With Purée Artisan
The new juice bar on Elm Street in Bethesda is the latest venture for Chevy Chase resident and Potomac native Amy Waldman.
—a new vegan juice bar in downtown Bethesda (at 4903 Elm St.)—is off to a strong start.
Even a chilly winter morning earlier this week couldn't keep the customers away from fresh, pureed juices and healthy, plant-based food.
It marks the latest venture—or perhaps adventure—for Amy Waldman, a Chevy Chase resident and Potomac native who has previously been an actress, accountant, marketing executive and graphic designer.
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But that’s all in the past. Now, Waldman describes herself on her website as “a self-taught, raw-food and juicing geek.”
Waldman got involved in a healthy lifestyle about five or six years ago, “getting into a much healthier and physical” routine, she told Patch.
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“It really did make all the difference in the world,” she added.
“I eat primarily a raw diet ... not 100 percent but primarily raw food,” Waldman said. “I keep my weight down and I feel so much better. ... It’s worked so well that now I like to turn other people on to it.”
With her new lifestyle, she noticed one thing right off the bat. “There was nowhere around here where you could get a real healthy juice drink,” she recalled.
Interestingly, , an upscale fitness center, is next-door to the new juice bar, which opened on Dec. 29. So, after an exercise session, stop in for an ultra-healthy juice drink.
Waldman’s come up with a catchy slogan for the place, too: "Get your cleanse on."
There’s a wide selection of juice drinks available on the menu—everything from "mean lemonaid" (alkaline water, lemon, cayenne and coconut nectar) to the premium vanilla almond milk (raw Italian almonds, alkaline water, dates and vanilla bean).
Most drinks are $10 each—a price steepened by the time-consuming and labor-intensive process "that gives you the healthiest juice possible, a commitment to the very best ingredients [organic and local whenever possible], and a whole business focus on minimizing our environmental impact," according to the juice bar's website.
Juices come in glass bottles to maintain freshness, the website adds, and can be purchased in a customized bulk order for a cleansing juice detox. Six different juices (and maybe a few shots of ginger or beet juice) generally make up the menu for one day's worth of detox. But, with this juice bar's wide selection of juices, a day of detox won't be boring.
And, it’s either easy or not easy being green, judging from the offerings. There’s an "easy green" drink (cucumber, celery, pear, collard greens and lemon) and a "mean green" one (celery, cucumber, collard greens and parsley).
Opening at the start of a new calendar year is timely, too, especially for those who might be wavering a bit on resolutions to eat healthier food and lose weight. This place is almost guaranteed to get you back on track.
Waldman said her juice bar is doing very well in its initial weeks of operation.
Purée Artisan Juice Bar neatly fills a void in a heavily trafficked section of Bethesda, and is open from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m., Mondays through Saturdays, and from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Sundays.