As college students return from spring break early in March, they’ll find a new campus-area food option to continue the vacation theme.
Playa Bowls, in Ulrich’s Bookstore’s last storefront at South University and Church, offers fast, healthy fare with a tropical feel. (Rhyming with papaya, it’s the Spanish word for beach.)
Playa Bowls franchisees Matt Caplan and Bill Kretsch teamed up to open the South U location. | Photo: J. Adrian Wylie
Franchise partner Matt Caplan of West Bloomfield, a 1992 U-M grad and family law attorney, discovered the Belmar, New Jersey–based chain while vacationing in Florida with his wife and son. “Everything is very colorful and upbeat, and it had that surfer mentality. And I just kind of was like, ‘Wow, this is a great concept! Why don’t we have anything like this in Michigan?’”
With stores already in Bloomfield Hills, Rochester Hills, and Troy, the Ann Arbor location will be his fourth. This one is a joint venture with Bill Kretsch, who owns the franchise in Northville.
“I’ve always wanted to do something entrepreneurial, and frankly, it’s a hell of a lot less stressful than practicing law,” Caplan says. “And my wife’s a third-grade teacher, and it’s a lot less stressful than teaching third graders, right? So when we’re in the stores, it’s our happy place. And it’s just fun to be there, to see people happy, smiling, getting something that they enjoy eating. And we love mentoring our employees.” He expects a staff of thirty to forty part-timers, along with the full-time general manager and shift leaders.
Until very recently, the company’s online recruiting ads and its website’s careers page referred to entry-level employees as “babes and bros.” It’s an aspect of the founders’ surfer culture that Caplan—whose legal work focuses on women’s rights—found offensive. “I guess on the beach, surfing, everybody’s a babe or bro, but I just didn’t feel like it translated well to Michigan and to our culture here,” he says. “So we dropped those monikers and we refer to our employees as team members.”
The tropical decor includes surfboards and a neon “Welcome to Pineappleland” sign amidst hand-painted palm trees, mermaids, and anchor motifs. “It’s just a really upbeat atmosphere,” Caplan says. “Our T-shirts are all colorful, and we’re always playing that type of Jimmy Buffett beach music.”
His other locations are about three-fourths takeout or delivery, but with seating for up to twenty, he expects more customers to hang out in the Ann Arbor shop. Within a few months, the basement space will be ready as a banquet facility for parties, conferences, and meetings for clubs, teams, or Greek organizations.
The menu features a wide and customizable range of produce-rich bowls and nondairy smoothies and juices. A $13 bowl with an açai base topped with blueberry flax granola, strawberry, banana, Nutella, and coconut flakes is a proven customer favorite. “The young people go crazy for the Nutella drizzle on top of it, which is probably the only unhealthy thing that we have in the store,” Caplan notes. “But that’s the most popular one.”
The Electric Mermaid, one of several purple concoctions based on pitaya (also known as dragonfruit), includes pineapple, mango, kiwi, coconut flakes, and honey.Smoothies, such as the Dolce, combining banana, peanut butter, chocolate protein, and coconut milk, come in servings of sixteen ($7.99) or twenty ounces ($8.99). All their offerings can be made to accommodate dietary restrictions and allergies.
“Everything’s made fresh daily. Everything is real fruit, real vegetables. We don’t add any artificial coloring. We don’t add any artificial sweeteners,” he says. “It really is a healthy alternative to fast food.”
Playa Bowls, 1200 South University. (734) 882–2526. Sun.–Wed. 8 a.m.–8 p.m., Thurs.–Sat. 8 a.m.–10 p.m. playabowls.com/location/ann-arbor
