BY THE MERCURY NEWS – Vitality Bowls, a franchise restaurant owned by Anu Krishnan and her husband Anil Nair, prides itself on serving up wholesome meals to those looking to escape the fast food lunch hour.
“I was basically a stay at home mom, and I’ve always been a big proponent of eating healthy and organic things,” says Krishnan, who also manages the store. “For me, this was something I could relate to very well because I’ve always fed my kids good food, and I always encouraged them to eat healthy.”
The restaurant opened in the Nineteen800 mixed-use property on Vallco Parkway last month. The menu consists of bowls packed with superfoods including camu camu, acai and pomegranate, with each bowl topped with a different selection of fruits, vegetables, nuts, granola or even bee pollen or honey. The menu also offers smoothies, juices, paninis and salads.
Krishnan says the shop has been a great fit for Cupertino so far.
“I think more people these days are transitioning into the healthy lifestyle, and I think the majority of people here are well educated,” she says. “When you are educated, you know more about what is good for your body. We felt that people would definitely lean toward healthy food.”
The couple did not expect to find themselves in the food industry.
“When we started looking at franchising options, we didn’t think about opening a restaurant, food was the last thing on our list, but when we heard about Vitality Bowls, this was such an elite option,” Krishnan says. “It made sense to me so we didn’t have any second thoughts, we knew this was going to be it.”
Nair came from the tech world, working as an industrial engineer, but he wanted to try his hand at entrepreneurship, especially with one daughter off at college and another daughter on her way to college next year.
“I wanted to do something on my own, but never got to. It’s priorities,” Nair says. “I wanted to get my financials in place and stabilize and all those things. It took so many years. We decided to do something together now that the kids are off to college, so we decided to look at some other options. Mutually, we agreed that this was the best thing for us.”
Getting the go-ahead from the franchisers and the city took about a year and a half, he adds. The shop is a cozy 1,100 square feet, and so far the couple have eight part-time employees.
The couple says they already have some customers that come in three to four times a week and know the owners by their first names. Business right now is good, but they are really looking forward to the opening of the Apple Campus 2 just up the street on Wolfe Road and further development at neighboring Main Street Cupertino to draw even more customers to the store.
Vitality Bowls is located at 19700 Vallco Parkway, Suite 160 and is open Monday-Friday, 8 a.m.-8 p.m., Saturday 9 a.m.-8 p.m., and Sunday, 8 a.m.-7 p.m. read more
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