Since Thrive Juicery added a downtown location in October, owner Anna Mignery has been driving loads of fresh, cold-pressed juice from the company’s E. Stadium Blvd. flagship three times a day.
“We still want to have our juice here as fresh as possible,” says Mignery, perched on the Liberty Rd. store’s window seat. The small brick building–formerly home to VinBar and Acme Mercantile–doesn’t have the space for another industrial juice press, so Mignery and her employees shuttle in whatever customers are requesting.
So far, she says, things have been smooth, though a recent DoorDash delivery order for five turmeric shots caused a bit of a panic and a last-minute extra trip. “It’s hard with online ordering, because you don’t have the person right in front of you to say ‘Hey, can we talk you into this instead?'”
The new Thrive, like the first, was designed by local ultramodern design firm Synecdoche, and they share bright white and dark wood themes. But the 1888 building presented a few unique challenges. “It was very important to our landlord for us not to do anything with the [hardwood] floors, and for food service you have to have a flat panel surface” to clean. As a compromise, they put a laminate layover with a look-alike wooden pattern in the work area behind the counter.
“The builders will tell you that this was an ‘un-square’ building,” she adds, pointing wryly to a dramatically slanted cooler. “I just kept saying ‘Embrace that’ … That’s part of being in a historic building.”
The two locations offer the same menu, which includes raw cold-pressed juices, smoothies, coffee, alkaline water, salads, and artisanal toasts. A newer addition to both is “E3Live,” a bottled algae “superfood” with a number of purported healthy properties that can be added to juices.
Though they couldn’t fit in a juice press, Mignery has placed a working citrus juicer in the window. “We can do oranges, grapefruits, and lemons,” she says. “We bottle [in the morning] for the day, but we have lots of customers that want to do it or want to watch it happen, so that’s fine too.”
She and her husband, Andy, whose Texas-based real estate job keeps him traveling too much to take a hands-on role like Anna’s, opened the first Thrive last January. The couple, both former U-M athletes, were inspired by the results they had from juicing at home and decided to build a business around it.
For those looking to try one of Thrive’s many juice cleanse programs, Mignery recommends starting off cautiously. “I always say ‘start with one or two days. You can always call us and add on, but don’t take a leap’ … It’s really difficult, and I don’t want [anyone] to feel like I led them to believe it was going to be a breeze, you know?
“It’s like running a marathon. It’s really hard when you’re doing it, but when you’re done you feel great.”
Thrive Juicery, 111 W. Liberty. (734) 585-5221. Mon.-Fri. 8 a.m.-6 p.m., Sat. & Sun. 9 a.m.-6 p.m. thrive-juicery.com
