Customers can grab handcrafted smoothies, specialty coffee and breakfast in the morning before work. They also can stop in for grain bowls and salads during lunch or pick up prepared meals and healthier pantry staples.<\/p>\n
Many menu items are naturally gluten-friendly or dairy-free, with an emphasis on whole-food ingredients and protein-rich options. Some early favorites are already emerging.<\/p>\n
The grain bowls, each inspired by a different Blue Zone region around the world, have quickly become customer favorites, Boone said. Smoothies like the Build Plus, Blue Crush and Sunrise have also developed a loyal following.<\/p>\n
Still, Boone said creating the menu wasn’t nearly as simple as choosing ingredients.<\/p>\n
“People see the finished product, but behind every smoothie, bowl or salad are countless rounds of testing, tweaking, nutritional analysis, sourcing ingredients and refining recipes,” she said.<\/p>\n
“It’s an enormous amount of work,\u201d said Boone, \u201cbut it’s incredibly rewarding when guests come back and order those same items again.”<\/p>\n
Even renovating the caf\u00e9 came with unexpected lessons.<\/p>\n
Moving one refrigerated display case sparked a chain reaction of new countertops, electrical work and countless other improvements that weren’t originally part of the plan. Like many small business owners, Boone quickly discovered that even modest renovations can snowball.<\/p>\n
Thankfully, she hasn’t had to do it alone.<\/p>\n
As the mother of a 2-year-old overseeing three businesses, Boone credits much of Blue’s success to her leadership team, including Director of Operations Natasha May and the cafe\u2019s director Haley Brooks, whose work helps maintain the welcoming atmosphere she envisioned from the start.<\/p>\n
\u201cI truly couldn’t do this without an incredible leadership team,” Boone said.<\/p>\n
That sense of hospitality may ultimately be what separates Blue from other caf\u00e9s. Boone hopes customers see familiar faces each visit and that they feel like they’re dropping into a place that’s part of the neighborhood.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Customers can grab handcrafted smoothies, specialty coffee and breakfast in the morning before work. They also can stop…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":813885,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[61],"tags":[345206,345207,50561,327413,97,304,345205,83355,345208,345209,269,345210],"class_list":["post-813884","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nutrition","tag-blue-caf-wellness-market","tag-blue-cafe","tag-charleston-business","tag-charleston-sc-news","tag-health","tag-healthy-eating","tag-julie-boone","tag-nexton","tag-nexton-restaurants","tag-nexton-shops","tag-nutrition","tag-summerville-restaurants"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/813884","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=813884"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/813884\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/813885"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=813884"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=813884"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=813884"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}