Kosher açaí bowl shop comes to Baltimore

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From left: Councilman Izzy Patoka, Co-Owners Isaac and Nancy Pretter, Councilman Yitzy Schleifer and Del. Dalya Attar at the Baltimore Playa Bowls ribbon-cutting ceremony
From left: Councilman Izzy Patoka, Co-Owners Isaac and Nancy Pretter, Councilman Yitzy Schleifer and Del. Dalya Attar at the Baltimore Playa Bowls ribbon-cutting ceremony (Meira Reches)

From the beaches of Belmar, N.J., comes a new kosher dining option for Baltimore’s Jewish community.

On Oct. 3, Playa Bowls, a franchise serving up açaí bowl, smoothies and more, officially opened a location at 2632 Quarry Lake Drive.

“[Playa Bowls is] a very unique place,” said Isaac Pretter, one of the co-owners of the Playa Bowls location in Baltimore. “It’s really hard to compare it to anything, because it’s its own category, I’d say.”

Though Playa Bowls is primarily an açaí bowl shop, Pretter noted that the menu also includes pitaya bowls, oatmeal and fresh smoothies and juices. Pretter described açaí as a super fruit known for boosting energy, healing cells and stimulating the immune system.

In what is sure to be welcome news to many in the Jewish community, the Baltimore Playa Bowls location has been certified as kosher by Star-K, said Pretter, a resident of Pikesville and member and past president of Bnai Jacob Shaarei Zion. It is currently the only kosher Playa Bowls location in Maryland, and so far has been proving popular with kosher consumers, he said.

Playa Bowls’ first location was founded at the Jersey shore in Belmar, N.J. in 2014 by Robert Giuliani and Abby Taylor, Pretter said.

“They were both surfers that had kind of encountered açaí bowls on their surf trips around the world,” said Mike Bogdan, another of the Baltimore location co-owners and a resident of Westfield, N.J. “And they realized that, on the East Coast, there really wasn’t anything like that.”

Giuliani and Taylor discovered that while options like pizza and french fries were plentiful at the beach, healthier choices were scarce, Bogdan said. They set up a shack to serve açaí bowls, and after the shop found success, they franchised their business. It began to spread across New Jersey, up and down the East Coast and throughout the country, Pretter said.

With over 130 locations, Playa Bowls is the country’s largest chain of açaí bowl shops, Pretter said. While Playa Bowls has other locations in Maryland, the franchise did not previously have a shop in the Baltimore area. This changed when Pretter reached out to Playa Bowls and proposed starting the Quarry Lake location. Pretter said he felt the franchise would be a great addition to the community.

From left: Sherri and Mike Bogdan, Dov and Jenny Ocken and Nancy and Isaac Pretter are the co-owners of the Baltimore Playa Bowls location
From left: Sherri and Mike Bogdan, Dov and Jenny Ocken and Nancy and Isaac Pretter are the co-owners of the Baltimore Playa Bowls location (Meira Reches).

“I noticed that many tenants will pass over Baltimore with popular concepts, and then only come to Baltimore much later,” Pretter said. “I wanted to change that and bring a very fast-growing, popular concept to Baltimore earlier.”

Pretter is currently one of six owners of the Baltimore location. The others are his wife Nancy Pretter, Sherri and Mike Bogdan, and Dov and Jenny Ocken.

Some of the more popular menu items include the nutella açaí bowl and the dragonberry pitaya bowl, Pretter said, noting that any bowl can be customized to the individual customer. Bogdan said that he has personally eaten hundreds of the nutella açaí bowls over the years.

Playa Bowls nutella açaí bowl
Playa Bowls nutella açaí bowl (Courtesy of Playa Bowls)

While Pretter has noticed that his customers tend to be younger and tend to be women, he’s “been amazed by how diverse the customer base we have, and how broad the appeal is. … As we educate people about the product, we’re noticing that the men who come like it as well.”

To those interested in opening a restaurant or franchise of their own, Bogdan advises them to make sure they are prepared for what they are getting themselves into.

“I’ve learned that none of these stores can ever be really hands off, because you want to be committed, you want to make sure things are running quickly,” Bogdan said. “You have to be ready and committed to do the work to be successful.”

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