Rutabaga, a juice bar and vegan restaurant, has just opened in Carver Square on Route Three North in Crofton. The eating place is a second area for owners Stacey and Jim Heywood, who opened their Annapolis area in October 2015. “We agree with what we had been referred to as to create healthful, on-hand food that is approachable and not using a pretense,” Jim Heywood said. “This is smooth, healthy, humble food, not fancy meals.”
Rutabaga’s juices do now not offer a ‘miracle’ therapy. Alternatively, a brand new, wholesome option neighborhood citizens had been trying to find. “Our juices are built on flavor,” Jim Heywood said. “We provide complete meals that taste top and are obvious. We spend quite a little time growing and making tricky and thrilling tastes.” They consider their juices, kombuchas, sandwiches, and bowls suitable for everybody, from carnivores to paleo dieters to vegans.
“Flavor is our fundamental challenge,” Jim Heywood said. “We want meals to deliver pleasure on your existence. We are exceptionally transparent with all our components.” Indeed, each object within the complete restaurant, whether or not taken from the snatch and pass case or ordered off the menu, has each ingredient listed. The Heywoods are also dedicated to helping neighborhood corporations, the handiest available at farmers’ markets.
Rutabaga uses Michele’s Granola from Timonium, Clinger’s Naturals nuts and nut butter from Salisbury, Lord Byron’s honey and bee pollen from Thurmont, kimchi and sauerkraut from The Preserve restaurant in Annapolis and Oksana’s Produce Farm in Chestertown. Rutabaga’s kombuchas are also aware offers from four special places, Baltimore: Federalsburg, Ocean City, and Charlottesville, Virginia.
“We use nearby ingredients even though it’s extra high-priced,” stated Jim Heywood. “We spend extra on excessively nice products because it makes everything flavor higher.” People have said to the Heywoods that they are an ‘area of interest’ eating place, but they disagree. “The way we devour isn’t niche,” stated Stacey Heywood. “It’s true that we all want and need [in Crofton]. We offer clean, healthy alternatives for people, and we can evolve fast by being impartial. There’s little or no like us here.”
“The reality that we replaced burger vicinity (Five Guys) is a testimony to the manner the food enterprise goes and what human beings are excited about,” said Stacey Heywood. “It isn’t niche. It’s what people have been watching for.” While a few might also scoff at green juice, Stacey Heywood has a project for nay-sayers: “Replace one cup of morning coffee with green juice for one week and notice how you experience it. People are nearly always transformed.”
“(Green juice) is a superb strength booster, particularly on an empty stomach and full of micronutrients,” stated Jim Heywood. An $8.50 charge tag for one juice might also strike some as excessive, but one must remember that three kilos of produce go into each juice. “It might take 5 hours to consume that plenty,” said Jim Heywood. We are concentrating nutrients.”
“It’s the equal factor as juicing at domestic without the attempt,” stated Stacey Heywood. “It is a value compared to what you would do at home.” Rutabaga gives more than simply eight unique kinds of juices. Every difference in greens, herbs, and fruit inside the cooler case, sparkling salads, and overnight oats, every made clean every day, is available for a fast chunk to consume.
For diners with greater time, one can buy eight special sorts of smoothies, eight unique bowls, and four unique varieties of toasts, all made fresh within the viewable kitchen. Kombuchas are also on tap. Blends are smoothies created in a taste for every temper, which include ‘Breakfast’ with oats, almond butter, bananas, and spices, fresh blends like the ‘Green Zinger’ and ‘Berried,’ or maybe dessert with their ‘Peanut Butter Power Chocolate’ Blend.
Bowls have a thick smoothie base with a unique topping that provides crunch and other flavor details. The PB&J bowl is Stacey Heywood’s favorite: “It tastes much like a peanut butter and jelly sandwich.” For the simplest $5.50, a diner can get one of 4 ‘Toasts.’ Two are fruity and are veggie-based totally, all on vegan bread. The salads ($7.50) are made fresh every morning and range in flavors from Southwest or That to Super Greek or Chickpea. “At the core, this meal has to taste top,” said Stacey Heywood. “That makes it sustainable, and people keep going back.”
