It’s a very good time to be in the wellness-maxxing business.
Driving the news: Toronto's go-to superfood cafe, Nutbar, is expanding to the U.S. with a new store in New York City. The Greenwich Village spot will be Nutbar’s first outside of Toronto, where it currently has six locations.
Catch-up: Nutbar has become a hit among the health-conscious, morning Pilates, cold plunge crowd. Its menu of $18 collagen smoothies, matcha drinks, and medicinal mushrooms has built a cult following, with some drawing comparisons to the luxe California health food bar, Erewhon.
One customer told The Kit that she spends $13,000 a year at Nutbar and even has a separate credit card just to use at the cafe (to hide the smoothie damage from her husband, apparently).
Another regular, who was searching for a house in Toronto, said that she refused to buy a place that was outside of Nutbar’s delivery radius.
Why it matters: Nutbar was on the ground floor of the wellness movement before it really picked up steam. Now, with more Canadians trading boozy nights out for morning workouts, saunas, and green juices, the cafe is reaping the rewards.
Zoom out: Another Canadian beneficiary of the wellness boom is buzzy bathhouse Othership, which is also expanding across NYC. Funnily enough, the founder of Nutbar and co-founder of Othership are siblings and have neighbouring Toronto locations. We’re gonna go out on a limb and say there are a lot of cold plungers grabbing a green juice on their way home.—LA
