When I recently wrote about the opening of Banh Mi + Roll and Greenery Co. in Hillsboro Village, I noted that the healthy food options in my home neighborhood sure have improved over the years. Heck, I used to get my mail forwarded to the Sportsman’s Grille because I knew I’d be there more nights per week than I would be at home. So it’s good for me and good for all of us that yet another plant-based restaurant has opened in the space next to Banh Mi + Roll on the ground floor of the Moxy — Grain & Berry at 1806 20th Ave. S.
The latest outpost of the Florida-based chain of healthy eateries is the first one outside of the Sunshine State, and it’s operated by two former Floridians who discovered the concept when their daughter started working at a Tampa store. Keith and Nicole Brant are the owners/operators of the newest Grain & Berry (although I will admit to a little bit of disappointment when I realized it wasn’t THAT Keith and Nicole), and they’ve been open since mid-January.
Of course, opening a restaurant during a pandemic is a brave act and took a lot longer than expected, so the Brants are very excited to be in business. Although the space is limited by the cement design gestalt of the Moxy, Grain & Berry has done a good job spicing up the place, with Florida-appropriate bright hues in both the decor and the food.
The menu might be familiar to fans of other restaurants specializing in healthy fruit and grain bowls, with selections of superfood bowls, smoothies, juices and energy shots, plus a lineup of avocado toasts, flatbreads and quesadillas available with either broccoli or cauliflower crusts. Outside of some special keto-centric options that feature eggs, all the ingredients at Grain & Berry are plant-based, including the cheeses and sausages on the savory items. The bowls are as Instagrammable as the colorful milkshakes at the bachelorette-crowded creameries of downtown, except a whole lot healthier.
Clocking in at less than 600 calories for a bowl that is definitely enough for a meal, the dishes at Grain & Berry start out with your choice of five frozen superfood bases: acai, spirulina, pitaya, kale or yogurt. Each base varies in sweetness/tartness and specific superfood properties, and employees can offer you a taster spoon and a cup of all the bases to help you choose. The Good Karma bowl I tried featured the kale base, mixed with banana and pineapple and topped with granola, blueberries, honey, kiwi, chia seeds and more bananas, and I felt like I was enjoying a cheat meal instead of a healthy treat.
Slightly more decadent is Grain & Berry's selection of yogurt banana splits that the Brants often recommend to skeptical children as a smaller portion item in lieu of a full bowl. Grain & Berry corporate dictates the ingredients that the Brants use on their menu, but they are free to source as many items as possible from local purveyors, including wheatgrass from an area farmer. They add no artificial colors or sugar to any of their dishes, so those vibrant colors in their dishes come solely from the exotic tropical fruits and fresh vegetables that they use in their small kitchen.
Speaking of their kitchen, Grain & Berry is open to just about any specific dietary needs and is careful to prepare any nut-free or gluten-free options in an even smaller separate kitchen in the back room. Open seven days a week from 6:30 a.m. until 9 p.m., Grain & Berry caters to doctors and nurses from the surrounding hospitals during the mornings, Vanderbilt and Belmont students during the day and neighbors whenever they’re open. In fact, thanks to the fact that they also serve a pretty fine cup of coffee, they encourage students to meet and camp there for study groups or for remote workers to get out of the house for a little while with a session in their well-ventilated high-ceilinged dining room. They also offer a loyalty program to reward frequent return visitors. Takeout and delivery options have been very popular since Grain & Berry opened, and you’re welcome to park in the garage for free for 15 minutes if you’re picking up.
Follow Grain & Berry's local Facebook page to keep up with their daily specials, such as a free juice or smoothie for you and your sweetie with the purchase of any bowls and half-price shots on Fat Tuesday. Welcome to the neighborhood, Grain & Berry!
In other juice news (pretend that rhymes), I Love Juice Bar will celebrate the grand opening of their newest location, which has relocated from Germantown to the Nashville Farmers’ Market in the Market House in the space between Succulent Vegan Tacos and Cowgirl Coffee. On Friday, Feb. 12, from 8 a.m. until 4 p.m., they’ll be offering $5 juices, so it’ll be a fine time to sample some of the new additions to the menu, including Pitaya Punch, Fire Ball and CBD Punch. Fortunately, I discovered that ILJB’s version of Fire Ball contains ginger and cayenne instead of whiskey, sugar, cinnamon and regret, so that’s a good thing.
Cheers!
