Juice Joint makeover worth the wait

Tom Holland is putting in more hours than he can count these days at the Juice Joint Café. He’s been in the restaurant business for over two decades but is still as passionate about his dream café and the healthy food he serves there daily.

When Holland was 32, the once-aspiring hockey player found himself bartending, unhealthy and facing a possible hip replacement if he didn’t get his life in order. He turned to a chiropractor, changed his diet and a new dream was born.

Holland freely admits he's a man who wears his emotions on his sleeve, and has been known to bark at his customers. “What you see is what you get,” said Holland.

Juice Joint, which is located on Vermont Avenue and K Street, NW, is the second incarnation of the place. He opened his first branch in the 1990s in Dewey Beach, Del. This location opened in 1997. He added “café” to the name so people wouldn’t think it was just a place to buy juices and smoothies.

“There is not a lot of margin in juices and smoothies,” added Holland.

The café fast became a destination for office workers in the K Street corridor in search of a healthy start to their day and during the lunch hour. Pretty soon the café became a victim of its own success. Holland regularly found himself having to corral the lunchtime crowd into a line that snaked around the handful of tables in the cramped Vermont Avenue premises.

“It was horrible. I took more tables out than were left in the restaurant. It sucked. I wondered, Am I going to make it? Some darts were thrown at me on Yelp,” he said. “And not undeserved.”

Something had to give. The opportunity to expand came this past winter and plans already gathering dust for five years went into action. Holland closed shop for a few months, demolished and helped remodel the whole interior. In so doing, he saved himself thousands and kept his costs under control.

The new Juice Joint Café, which opened in late March, is bright and airy. The kitchen and prep stations are more spacious and open, with a mural depicting fruit and vegetable characters running and playing on the National Mall setting the tone. This place has a healthy and happy vibe. Already it has about doubled its daily business, going from an average 400 covers daily to almost 800.

Holland takes pride in the food he serves. Whether it’s the newly minted Melon Cooler juice drink, the Mango Madness smoothie, or the Jerked Chicken Wrap, it’s all first-rate.

“The menu is based on what I like. It’s got to be true to the original concept. This is how I eat. If it doesn’t pass Tom’s taste test, it doesn’t go on the menu,” said Holland.

The majority of his customers are women, about 70 percent, and he sees a lot of pregnant women show up at the counter. “Why? Because they are smarter than men, because they trust us,” said Holland, smiling.

Holland’s secret ingredient in his success could well be Chef Adrien Marsoni, formerly of Bistro Du Coin in Dupont Circle, who is also a partner in the business, along with Holland’s brother Jim.

Marsoni, was looking for a fresh, healthy start a few years back. “He wanted to get out of the fat and the cream and traditional French cooking,” said Holland, who needed a new kitchen manager at the time. “I don’t know if this was fate or karma.”

In addition to serving breakfast (7:30 a.m. - 10:30 a.m.) and lunch (10:30 a.m. – 4 p.m.) customers can now go online and place a take home order by 2 p.m. and pick up before closing at 6 p.m. Holland also has plans to open Saturdays.

Fresh off the expansion, Holland is looking to the future. While he has no plans to open another Juice Joint Café just yet, you get the sense that he’s itching to pull the trigger on a new project.

“I’ve developed all the franchise for this. I’d love to see hundreds [of Juice Joints].”

For now, though, he’s happy to take your order and see you dine in comfort.