Wilmington Green Box has opened its gates for another summer of cold pressed juices at its Green Space on the 400 block of Market (and now at the Rodney Square Farmers’ Market on Wednesdays). But before the summer ends (fingers crossed, if construction goes well), it will be joined by Green Box Kitchen, a new fast-casual vegan restaurant that will offer takeout with seating for about 10-12 people on the corner of Fourth and Market. And that’s not even the biggest thing Green Box entrepreneur Jason Aviles has going on this summer…
“We’re expecting our first child in, like, five weeks. It’s like I’m having twins. I’ve got a baby girl on the way, and a business about to be born. It’s kind of crazy right now.”
“The space that will be Green Box Kitchen came to us as a blank canvas, and that allowed us to look at every inch of the space and really determine what we want the space to be. We want to create an experience. We want to create a vacation from the norm. We want it to be an evolution of Wilmington Green Box, very distinctive in its color palette, with a lot of greenery. We’re doing like things like live walls, incorporating moss, air plants, and succulents.”
“There’s going to be a heavy emphasis on whole foods – wholesome, nutrient-dense, whole foods. And of course everything is going to be 100% vegan, 100% plant-based. There will be menu items like grain balls of black rice and quinoa with sweet potatoes and avocado, and garnished with fresh herbs, fresh spices. We’re leaning away from using the meat-like substitutes like the Beyond Burger, just to show what whole foods can look like when they’re combined with like great flavor profiles and ingredients.”
“There are days when we just sit in this space and we can’t believe we’ve made it this far. It feels like it’s been so long, but we really, it’s been six years. Wilmington Green Box started with one kid and a pushcart that we built out of an ice box that we found in a Victorian home over in West Center City. We were selling bottled watermelon juice in mason jars, going between different barbershops and hair salons. We spent a lot of time just educating people and explaining the ins and outs of what a cold-pressed juice is, and two and a half years later, we’re finally seeing that investment come full circle. The demand wasn’t there initially because the awareness wasn’t there, but after time and education and awareness and access, now the demand is incredible.”
This year we’re employing 20 teens at the Wilmington Green Box and they’re all making a minimum of $10 an hour, working an average 25 hours a week. And at the same time, we’re giving birth to this little brick-and-mortar full-service restaurant and juice bar.”
“We’re just happy to have the opportunity to be a part of the growth and development that’s happening downtown. And that’s how we’ve always looked at it. We want to add to the fun and adventure that we want people coming here to experience, because we have more people coming into the city now than we’ve ever had before. And they want to see what they see in Philly. They want to see what they see in New York. They want to see what they see in L.A. We’re trying to make the work we do not just appeal to Delaware. We’re trying to create a great business for the state and beyond.”
This post appears courtesy of New Market Wilm. View the original post here.