Ashton Carpenter reached out to Rabbi Miller on the Kosher Michigan website after hosting a successful event for Jewish Federation’s NEXTGen Detroit.
Business partners Kelly Carpenter and Ashton Carpenter are the mother-in-law and daughter-in-law combo behind Pure Green – Juice Bar Birmingham. The franchised store they opened in 2023 in downtown Birmingham is an inviting place for health-focused people to find drinks and food that will energize and nourish their body.
Wellness devotee Ross Franklin envisioned the model when he founded his fast-growing Pure Green brand in 2014 in New York City.
Now the Carpenters’ line-up of delicious, nutrient-packed acaí bowls, cold-pressed juice creations and handcrafted smoothies is finding an even wider audience. Kosher Michigan founder-director Rabbi Jason Miller announced recently that the Pure Green store in Birmingham is kosher-certified.
Ashton Carpenter reached out to Rabbi Miller on the Kosher Michigan website after hosting a successful event for Jewish Federation’s NEXTGen Detroit. She and Kelly Carpenter, both Christian, were inspired by the group’s recommendation to talk to Miller about providing Metro Detroit with a kosher experience at their Pure Green franchise in Birmingham.
Inside Pure Green Birmingham
“It seemed like a natural direction for Pure Green’s mission, to build healthier communities through the use of clean ingredients, superfoods and being designated kosher,” Ashton said. She felt confident of “the health (that) kosher foods offer for those who follow kosher guidelines.”
“I researched other kosher-certified Pure Green franchises, then met with Ashton in person for a full walk-through of the store,” Miller said. “After reviewing every ingredient and process, we were able to complete certification in less than a month.”
Ashton said Miller returned to “introduce himself to the Birmingham Pure Green team, trained them, answered their questions and gave us the kosher certificate for our store.”
“Pure Green represents the kind of brand we’re proud to certify,” Miller said. “The commitment to fresh, high-quality, health-conscious ingredients aligns perfectly with the values of kashrut [Jewish dietary laws]. We’re thrilled to welcome them into the Kosher Michigan family as the only kosher-certified restaurant in downtown Birmingham.”
“Becoming kosher certified has been a meaningful and educational experience for our whole team,” Ashton added.
The path for Ashton and Kelly to co-own a Pure Green franchise started with Paige Carpenter, Kelly and Brian Carpenter’s young adult daughter. Paige has a sugar sensitivity but didn’t get an upset stomach after drinking a smoothie in 2023 from a Pure Green store in Sterling Heights.
Later that year, her mother visited a Pure Green in Macomb Township. “I loved the menu, mission and business model,” said Kelly, who developed her interest in adopting healthy habits from her brother’s example.
When Ashton learned of her delight about Pure Green, the women decided to become franchise owners through their new partnership, Innate Investment. “The intent is to expand via diverse, lucrative investments that align with our values,” Kelly said. Innate Investment has plans to open another Pure Green store in Ann Arbor.
The women initially wanted to operate their franchise in a former ice cream and candy store in Livonia. The location was next door to the chiropractic clinic that Ashton co-owns with her husband, Dr. Mitchell Carpenter. However, company founder Franklin told the partners that from his experience, “Pure Green does better in a walking district, like Birmingham,” Kelly said. “We agreed.”
The space they chose on Pierce Street near East Maple Road was “vacant but built out to be another smoothie and juice franchise,” Kelly said. “It offered us a great opportunity to be a part of the Birmingham community.”
Both women are busy but coordinate to ensure one of them is at their Pure Green store daily. Ashton’s schedule is fluid in response to managing the marketing efforts/calendar at Pure Green Birmingham and running the chiropractic clinic’s day-to-day operations and marketing plans.
“Ashton often pops in at Pure Green during daytime hours weekdays for marketing content and meetings between shifts at the chiropractic clinic,” Kelly said. Ashton, skilled in establishing partnerships, also handles events and collaborations for the store most weekends.
Kelly and her husband, Brian Carpenter, co-own an energy management company in Mount Clemens. Her experience is in sales, account management, hospitality and restaurant management.
The Menu
Ashton said their most popular smoothie is Blue Banana, which has blue spirulina (a blue-green algae with anti-inflammatory benefits), acai, banana, grass-fed whey protein, cashew butter, coconut butter and almond milk.
Avocado Smash Toast
On my first visit to Pure Green, my friend Debbie Aronson and I split a Tropical Breeze smoothie, consisting of mango, pineapple, coconut butter, orange juice and almond milk. She pronounced our 20-ounce beverage “delicious,” while it didn’t seem sweet enough to me. That’s deliberate.
“Our menu offers items made with healthy, whole foods, superfood supplements with no added sugar,” Kelly said. The only sweeteners in the store are honey and maple syrup, which I learned afterward I might have requested for my smoothie.
On another visit, I ordered a Chocolate Mousse smoothie. The ingredients are raw cacao, avocado, banana, grass-fed whey protein, coconut butter and almond milk. The texture was like a milkshake.
I had never tried an acai bowl before going with Pure Green’s top-selling Mixed Berry Acai Bowl. Organic and wild-harvested acai is blended with frozen fruits to create a creamy frozen base consistency for the bowl. The base then is topped with organic hemp granola, fresh fruits, nut butters — I chose almond butter — and superfoods. Acai is loaded with antioxidants, polyphenols and nutrients. I was happy with my tasty bowl topped with granola, fresh blueberries and strawberries. I’ll get it again.
When it comes to the Toasts category, Avocado Smash Toast on seeded bread is another item I liked a lot, as do many other visitors. “I personally love our Chocolate Hazelnut Toast,” Ashton said. “It’s hearty, so you feel full after eating. But the taste is divine! It is a great balance of healthiness while hitting that chocolate-lover tooth people may have.”
I haven’t tried any of the Pure Green Pitaya Bowls yet. They’re made with organic pitaya, also called Dragon Fruit, which is said to have a bright pink color. Other menu items I’ll be sampling are the Steel-Cut Oatmeal Bowls, featuring organic steel-cut oats. They are handcrafted, made-to-order and topped with superfoods. One attractive choice is Honey Magic, which adds walnuts, apple, cranberries, cinnamon and raw honey to the oatmeal bowl.
Agave, a natural sweetener, is used in Pure Green’s Pure Gingerade Juice and Active Charcoal Juice. I tried several of the prepared cold press juices my third time back, and my favorite was light-tasting and refreshing Grape Hydr8. Kelly said the juice is good for adding electrolytes — minerals essential to body functions — after a workout. I could taste the strong ginger in Soul Kick juice, one of three customer favorites. The others are Melon Hydrate and Golden Girl. Kelly said she sometimes reaches for APL (Apple, Lemon, Ginger) juice “as a replacement meal, if I’m on the road and can’t stop for lunch.”
Mixed Berry Acai Bowl
Pure Green also offers a cleansing routine for better health. The hardcore cleanse involves drinking four green juices per day and two additional juices of choice.
“With each green juice offering the nutrients of 5 pounds of fruits and vegetables, this cleanse saturates our bodies with healthy nutrition,” Ashton explained. Pure Green’s juices are preserved with high-pressure processing so there are no added chemical preservatives.
Results of the cleanse will vary because “everyone is uniquely made and their body has an individual response/outcome,” she said. For herself, Ashton’s results after the three-day hardcore cleanse “were better than the 12-day raw vegetable liver cleanse I used to do.” She said she experienced significantly reduced inflammation, alleviation of joint pain, much better sleep, elimination of water retention and increased energy.
“Pure Green aligns perfectly with today’s focus on healthy dining,” Miller said. “It’s wonderful to see people enjoying everything the city has to offer,” and now there’s Pure Green Birmingham, open till 9 p.m. daily, offering “the added convenience of a kosher smoothie, snack or light lunch.”
With their business kosher-certified, Kelly said she and Ashton are “excited to serve even more people and make our space even more inclusive.”
PURE GREEN — JUICE BAR BIRMINGHAM
148 Pierce St. Birmingham
(248) 731-7656
Rabbi Jason Miller founded Kosher Michigan in 2008 to promote the observance of kashrut by certifying businesses, vendors and institutions that meet strict kosher standards. A list of certified kosher establishments (koshermichigan.com) is available.