If your New Year’s Resolution is to eat better, then Enumclaw’s new health-conscious smoothie and salad joint might just be for you.
Heidi Hawkinson’s Health Bar just opened on 1539 Blake St., unit 101, just down the street from Cobber’s Pet Pantry.
Though relatively new to Enumclaw, Hawkinson grew up in Auburn, where she recalled there were very little healthy food options in the area.
That changed when she moved to California: “I got an acai bowl every day, or a healthy smoothie, and I just noticed feeling a lot better,” she recalled. “It was just so convenient eating healthy there.”
Her healthy eating habits followed her then to Hawaii, where she co-owned a smoothie shop and started getting heavily into the “green smoothie” and superfood craze.
“That’s when I lost 20 pounds. I felt great, my skin looked better,” she said. “I was like, ‘OK, these are pretty amazing.’”
But when she came to Enumclaw three years ago, she yet again found herself in a bit of a health food desert.
“There isn’t even a fake smoothie place,” Hawkinson said.
That’s now changed, as the Health Bar offers several healthy smoothie options, from the PNW-styled triple berry smoothie to the more adventurous Pink Dragon (almond milk, pitaya, banana, mango, chia seeds, and bee pollen) and the Heart Beet (kombucha, beets, carrots, oranges, and banana).
Hawkinson also offers smoothie bowls, salads, and even small snacks like a grilled cheese (whole grain bread, mozzarella, tomatoes, macadamia nut pesto, and various greens) and, for the millennials, avocado toast.
“My passion is definitely in green smoothies, but I also wanted to have a healthy menu… [with] some comfort food that’s still healthy,” she continued.
Through the coronavirus prevents Hawkinson from allowing people to consume their meals in her restaurant, she isn’t planning on many people sticking around to enjoy their food. Her style, she said, is speed, since one of the biggest barriers for people eating healthier is the lack of convenience.
“Green smoothies, it’s literally like a salad in a cup. It’s on the go. People can drive around… and not have to go for the soda or the brevet mochaccino to fill themselves up,” she said. “We want to make it fast food, but I want to say it’s not fast food — it’s good food that we try to do fast.”
In conjunction with her health-conscious offerings, Hawkinson also tries to make sure she’s planet-conscious too, using compostable cups, straws, bowls, and utensils.
“I feel like everything in life, I should do with integrity,” she said. “For me, if I want to have a business, I don’t want to contribute to the plastic problem in the world.”
Even though the joint just recently opened on New Year’s Day, Hawkinson has some big plans for the future. In the short-term, she’s hoping to start serving Bonney Lake-based Lamppost Coffee Roasters products (“Coffee can be healthy, you just have to make it the right way. So I’m not going to offer sugar or anything like that.”) and wants to expand her catering services.
In the long-term, Hawkinson hopes to open a drive-through location, to make grabbing a healthy meal even more convenient.
The Health Bar is open Mondays through Fridays from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., and Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
You can keep up with news about the Health Bar on their Facebook at www.facebook.com/healthbar2020/, or you can contact the restaurant at 253-326-1052 or email at healthbar2020@gmail.com.
