Welcome Sun City Blends to the NoHo Arts District
The NoHo Arts District dot com team always says: “NoHo is only as great as its people.” One group is bringing North Hollywood and all of Los Angeles a heatlhy and yummy alternative…and they do it in a food truck. Meet the folks at Sun City Blends and give them a big NoHo Welcome!
“Life isn’t always simple, but your food should be.” – Sun City Blends
What is Sun City Blends?
– At Sun City Blends, an owner-operated, mobile small business, we’re working to bring you all natural recipes that refresh, refuel and won’t slow down your daily routine. Whether it’s a hearty bowl at breakfast, a refreshing juice come lunch time or a homemade fruit pop for dessert, you’ll find just what you need at Sun City Blends to help balance your lifestyle. When we set out to build an array of smoothies and juices that not only tasted great, but also boosted everything from your immune system to your skin complexion, we refused to do so through the use additives, concentrates or artificial sweeteners of any sort, because we believe that what you see on a menu should be exactly what you get in your cup. But hey, we let our craft recipes speak for themselves. Fresh fruits and vegetables blended together with vitamin rich roots and nuts – whoever said healthy can’t also be delicious was most certainly wrong. We pledge to keep making our recipes bolder and better than what is out there, because “craft” means we’ll never stop creating. Find the Sun City Blends food truck on the road, come say “hi” and don’t forget to treat yourself to guilt free, because even though you can’t pull a smoothie off a tree, we think you can get pretty darn close.
What inspired you to start a food truck?
– Years back, one of our three partners – Joel – began working at a juice bar outside of Los Angeles and fell in love with the craft of blending up healthy meal and snack alternatives for his customers. The problem he quickly faced though, was that most of the recipes at his location weren’t all natural and included either a concentrate, artificially sweetened sorbet or pasteurized juice as their base, more or less negating the health benefits of the smoothies and juices he was creating in the first place. Believing there must be a way to make delicious smoothies without the use of sugary additives, Joel set out to open his own store based on the mantra – “Treat Yourself to Guilt Free.” Having worked with another one of Sun City’s other partners – Alex – at a local juice and smoothie cafe where he shared his all natural recipes and plans for a store to follow, Joel was soon approached by Alex and his longtime friend and business partner, Matt – the final co-owner of Sun City Blends – who, after hearing about the success of food trucks in his home state on the east coast, encouraged the trio to turn Joel’s plans into a reality in the form of a juice and smoothie food truck. After months of blending their ideas and blending up numerous smoothie attempts, Sun City finally became what customers see on the road today – a vibrant, mobile, smoothie bar that brings just a little bit of nature’s slow roll to the busy city all around us.
So give us some background. Who is Sun City Blends?
– Having grown up in the bustling hub of downtown Los Angeles, Joel found himself heavily influenced and inspired by his Aztec culture. After joining up with a local Aztec dance group, he learned to respect nature and the purity of everything that grows from it – human and plant alike – a lesson that he’s taken and infused into every recipe he debuts on our truck. On the other side of the country, Matt and Alex grew up in the small towns of Massachusetts, roaming through the woods and spending afternoons feasting on wild berries and ripe fruit right off the neighbor’s trees. As Matt grew and rose in the world of business, one thing that came to disturb him was an evident trend in marketing where “real blueberries” were being promoted as a highlight in bagels, muffins and smoothies alike, leaving him wondering: when did “fake blueberries” suddenly become the norm? This troubling reality left him yearning for the days of old, when fruits and vegetables could be picked right from the bush, and after meeting with Joel, the pair quickly found that their differing – but not dissimilar – experiences would lead them to build recipes that would sell because they’re all natural and still delicious. Tying things together, Alex grew up as a writer, always looking to tell “the story” whatever that story may be, and along with Joel – who has been a musician and artist for well over a decade – the pair sought to not just build a brand, but to also create an ever changing piece of art, something that speaks for itself and grows with it’s customers, embracing their experiences while offering up a few of its own. When you see our shining sun backlighting a lush tree and the Los Angeles skyline behind it, you know “Sun City Blends” is more than just an image and that we’ll always have an obligation to continue telling the story of health, nature and the city that embraces it.
Why are you different?
– Much of what we do attempts to emulate attributes of successful smoothie and juice stores around the country, but instead of relying on simple tricks to produce an attractive or sweet tasting product, we depend on what nature gives us. Rather then add guar gum or sorbet to our smoothies to achieve a thick and creamy consistency, we focus on using natural thickeners like bananas, avocados and mangos to garner the same effect. These fruits and vegetables also act as natural sweeteners, ridding us of the need for juice concentrates or sugary additives and instead prompting us to use only natural honey or agave if desired. Furthermore, unlike the modern trend of juice spots that press their juices in the morning and let them sit on the shelves for a day or two – allowing most of the vitamins within the juice to die before its ever consumed – we press every single juice on the spot for peak freshness. In this vein of thinking, we also refused to build our image like some of the over-the-top health spots that offer pill bottles and mounds of powder supplements in an almost sterile, hospital-like environment to “compliment” their products. Cold white walls and pill capsules are as far from natural as you can get, and with us, we promise you’ll never get anything of the sort. And this brings us to the true difference between Sun City Blends and what else is out there – our customers. From the start, we wanted to hark back to the days when folks knew the employees down at corner store and were able to have a conversation, a laugh or find exactly what they needed because they actually knew each other. We’ll never stop catering to the needs and wants of the folks that step up to our truck, because we knew everyone is different and even though our simple and concise menu is a great starting point, it doesn’t always match up to what you need to keep running all day. So swap out, add in, mix and match – if we have it in the truck, we’ll make it work for you, because we know exactly who we’re serving, and we never plan on letting you down or brushing you off because it’s simply “not on our menu.”
What are some of your most popular recipes?
– In all our products, we allow the natural tastes of fruits and vegetables to come to the forefront as we develop full recipes based on the tastes that standout the most, be they earthy, bitter, bright or smooth. Below, you’ll find a few highlights of some of our most popular recipes:
– Curious Orange: With orange, lime juice, raspberries and mango, this smoothie is high in Vitamin C to help boost your immune system through the winter months and with an added dash of cayenne to help with decongestion and heart health and a squirt of honey to give your throat a warming coat, “curious” and “perfect” may be closer then you think.
– Sour D (Tox): Ripe with apple, lime, lemon, ginger, spinach and cucumber, the Sour D (Tox) acts as the perfect daily cleanse, providing fiber, vitamin C and ginger – which helps to speed up your metabolism and get the body working. Refreshing and cooling with just a hint of sour, this is the juice for beginners and veterans alike.
– Green Sun: Arguably our best seller, the Green Sun does it all. Fiber-hearty, rich in B-vitamins, super high in potassium and chock full of natural, omega-3 fatty acids in addition to numerous other health benefits, the avocado, banana, pineapple, dates, spinach, kale and coconut water in this smoothie create a creamy, slightly sweet mix that will win over even the most hesitant greens-eaters.
– Wonderberry Bowl: Though Acai bowls have become all the craze, our version is one of the healthiest out there, emphasizing powerful antioxidants through organic acai, strawberries and ripe raspberries, as well as essential omega 3 fatty acids through a chia seed topping with just enough potassium in it’s banana base and topping.
Why NoHo?
– First and foremost, Sun City Blends loves NoHo. Having frequented the neighborhood well before ever planning to park our truck here, we grew fond of the community feel so rarely found in the metropolis of Los Angeles and admired the slew of independent businesses all around. It’s these businesses, such as studios, theaters, cafes, salons and everything in between that finally attracted us to the area, for we saw that it was bursting with musicians, dancers, gym goers, students and commuters and that these people didn’t always have time to craft a healthy meal during their busy days and that there weren’t a whole lot of options for one in the neighborhood. With Sun City Blends, we provide just that without sacrificing taste and we hope to serve this community, one we’ve already become so familiar with, as we continue to grow and tell our story alongside the artists that define it.
How can folks find you?
– You can find our location (or reach out with any questions) by phone at (323) 243-1926, email at alex@suncityblends.com or online through one of our social media links below. We provide live updates of our exact location through Twitter and provide updates of our daily schedule on Instagram.
– Website: www.suncityblendsla.com
– Facebook: www.facebook.com/suncityblends
– Instagram: www.instagram.com/suncityblends
– Twitter: twitter.com/suncityblends
– Yelp: www.yelp.com/biz/sun-city-blends-los-angeles
– Foursquare: foursquare.com/v/sun-city-blends/55f727b2498eece8c561bef3
– Roaming Hunger: roaminghunger.com/sun-city-blends/
– Food Trucks In: www.foodtrucksin.com/sun-city-blends
**** For information on Los Angeles theatre, tickets to theatre in North Hollywood’s NoHo Arts District, theatre reviews, the NoHo Event Calendar, restaurants, news and local businesses in NoHo, or anything and everything about the NoHo Arts Community, bookmark nohoartsdistrict.com. Follow us on Twitter @OfficialNoHo.