Sugary mixtures that taste more like dessert than low-cal alternatives aren’t what draw people to Raw Smoothie Co. From the Ybor City Saturday Market and other events to what is now home base at 408 N. Howard Ave., the quick-serve Tampa spot has gained a following for its organic green smoothies and acai bowls — each of which contains a full serving of greens, fruit and omega-rich seed.
University of South Florida alumni and friends Gian Carlos Birriel and James Rue, who both grew up in Tampa, opened RSC in the North Howard neighborhood on March 20, but they’ve been developing their hometown business for about a year, growing and gaining repeat customers through word of mouth and social media.
While living in downtown Tampa, the owners say they had a hard time finding healthier, convenient food options, so they decided to create their own. A successful run at the weekly Ybor farmers’ market helped them test their products as well as promote their brick-and-mortar shop, built as a to-go and delivery place.
“That’s, you know, our concept: offering nutrient-dense organic products, and then being able to get those to the surrounding areas with the same convenience of, like, a Domino’s — or even going to a McDonald’s — with our delivery options, with our carry-out options,” Birriel said. “It can be just as easy to get really healthy, nutrient-rich food as it is bad fast food that most people resort to when they are in a rush.”
Driven by organic ingredients, whole fruit and veggies and served in recyclable containers, items on the menu board are meant to be a meal in a cup, or bowl. Guests choose from made-to-order smoothies that speak to Rue and Birriel’s Florida and Tampa pride — including Flo-Grown (strawberry, mango, OJ, spinach, kale, chard, hemp seed) — and other blends repping punny names, like the popular Rise & Grind (banana, peanut butter, espresso beans, raw cacao, spinach, chard, kale, honey, almond milk, chia, flax). Plus, acai bowls, a quintessential offering at juice and smoothie bars, made with, yup, greens.
Using chard, spinach and kale in acai bowls isn’t standard practice, Rue says, but it’s one of the ways RSC distinguishes itself from other smoothie or acai joints. They think their variations are the best in town because folks get more for their buck.
“We offer a little bit more. You’re getting a more substantial meal, a more substantial nutritional profile,” Birriel said.
The lineup features what are called “smoothie bowls,” too, a term the owners say they believe no one else has coined locally. At this point, most people have an idea of what an acai bowl is, according to Rue. That’s why they use the creation — a smoothie made with the Amazonian acai berry that’s served in a bowl, essentially — as a reference for their smoothie bowls.
“We do any one of our organic blends as a smoothie bowl. What that does is it gives people all different sorts of flavor profiles to mix with,” Birriel said. “There’s also different sorts of textures with the grains and the granola, with the different smoothies and the different colors that that brings.”
For instance, if customers ask for Private Island (another guest favorite) as a bowl, they snag the smoothie’s standard combination of mango, pineapple, banana, spinach, kale, chard, hemp seed and passion fruit juice, alongside pumpkin seed, their choice of one fresh fruit topping and more, in loaded deep-dish form.
Another way to change up an order: organic superfood add-ons, or supplements, such as whey protein, matcha and dates, ranging from $1 to $2 extra.
For a long time, the fitness-minded duo was committed to a location on Cass Street, NoHo Junction, which Birriel says was set to become an indoor food court concept. Although the newly constructed building’s delays ultimately pushed them to find a new property, he and Rue see it as “a blessing in disguise” because they were able to design their digs their own way.
Plants inside and out, a graffiti wall behind the order counter they tagged with friends, paintings from local artist Jason Skeldon, and a ’90s hip-hop soundtrack add to the shop’s cool, natural vibe — as does woodwork from Manny Novo, who incorporated Pacific redwood, mahogany from an old Tampa ship and additional reclaimed woods into the building.
And the space’s location is as crucial as its ever-evolving look.
“[The neighborhood] is important for us because we want to be NoHo’s smoothie and smoothie bowl spot. And we realize the emerging market here and how everything is really trending upward, and we want to be a part of that from the ground up,” Birriel said.
RSC, which is in the process of getting on Eat24 (Yelp’s online ordering service), makes its own deliveries within a mile radius, and is also available through UberEATS. The shop operates from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday to Friday, and 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Saturday.
“We have people that come here that don’t know any of this,” Rue said. “And we try to educate them and let them know the quality of all this, the benefits of all these superfoods and the whole foods that you get.”
Birriel added: “We’re geared towards everybody — anybody who’s health-minded, anybody that wants a more premium, quality product that’s better for them.”
