Business near the Perkins Road overpass just got a little bit juicier. The Big Squeezy, a cold-pressed juice bar on Perkins Road (Map it!), is now open.
The new juice, smoothie and coffee bar hosted its grand opening Tuesday at 10 a.m., and co-owner Samir Abdo was overwhelmed by the positive response.
The Big Squeezy’s offering is small for now with nine juice types, superfood smoothies, nut “mylks,” cold-brewed coffees, shots of wheatgrass and sampler cases of juices. However, Abdo says a menu expansion is in the works.
“It’s more than just juice,” he says. “We already have organic foods and kale chips available. We’re working on preparing packaged salads soon, breakfast and dessert options as well. We’re going to offer quite a bit. We wanted to start with a small offering at first to introduce the community to this product.”
Among the juice flavors are Sweet Greens, which features kale, spinach, cucumber, pineapple, red apple, lemon and ginger; Good Greens, with cucumber, kale, lemon and chlorophyll; Root Awakening, which features beet, green apple, carrot, lemon and ginger; 24 Karrots, which features carrot, red apple, pear and lemon; and five other choices. Check out a full menu here.
Abdo and Kimberly Matsko had been wanting to bring The Big Squeezy idea to Baton Rouge for a couple of years, Abdo says. However, the timing wasn’t quite right until now.
“At the beginning of this year, it was clear to us that this was the time,” Abdo says. “There are a lot of other cold-press juicers that aren’t too close that are expanding at a very rapid rate. I’ve lived in New York for 15 years, and L.A. for another five years. We know all the players in the business, and I see what they’re doing.”
Abdo moved from Santa Monica, Calif., five months ago to build the store. With him, he brought a bevy of recipes. He says the store will use local produce as much as possible and all juices will be created in-house.
“We wanted to give customers a juice that has a shelf life of two to four days maximum,” Abdo says. “We feel that’s the best possible product.”
The Big Squeezy is open Monday-Saturday, 7 a.m.-7 p.m., and Sundays 10 a.m.-4 p.m. For more information, call 930-4466 or click here.
