When you hear the word “juice” what do you think of? Orange or apple? Grapefruit or cranberry? How about kale-apple-parsely-celery-lemon-ginger? Or apple-kiwi-spinach-romaine-cucumber-lemon?
That’s what’s on the menu at one of Verona’s newest businesses, Green Point Juicery, located across the street from one of the greenest points in town, Verona Park.
“We try to be as green as possible,” says Green Point’s owner Eugene. Just Eugene, he says. “Forget my last name, no one can pronounce it.”
That’s because Eugene came to the U.S. five years ago from one of the least green parts of the world: Siberia. He got a job working in a restaurant in New York City, and made it his business to learn every aspect of the restaurant world, from busboy and server to management. He also began to experiment with juicing, and it wasn’t long before he knew he wanted to make a business of it.
His first thought was to open a juice bar in Weehawkin’s Port Imperial Fery Terminal, which is near where he lives. But there was no room in the commuter hub and, with Manhattan real estate prices prohibitive, he began looking for a nice neighborhood in New Jersey.
He focused, he says, on towns with good schools and when he saw Verona Park, he knew he had found his spot. “I saw this place and I fell in love,” he says.
With its polished design, Green Point Juicery looks to some people like a franchise, but it isn’t. Eugene labored over a list of 50 different names before he came up with one he liked enough to give to a logo designer. Ten versions later, he had his logo choice too.
The offerings at Green Point Juicery are more expensive than supermarket juice, but given the amount of organic produce packed into each cup and bottle, it’s understandable. Prices start at $5.75 for the orange-lemon-lime C-Trio and go up to $10.55 for the Green Colada of pineapple, wheatgrass, cucumber, kale and mint. There’s also 100% organic cashew milk, and, if you are feeling really decadent, Choco-Cashew milk made with raw cacao. And as befits a business located on the route to and from Verona’s H.B. Whitehorne Middle School, there are student specials of $5 juices and smoothies.
“When I make juices, I try to make it so you taste every ingredient,” Eugene says. He admits, however, that he might not tell green-vegetable averse youngsters that there’s kale or spinach in their cup “until the third time they ask for it.” His clientele, by the way, includes both parents who bring their kids and kids who bring their parents. And yes, there is demand for 100% organic juices in Verona. Green Point Juicery has a loyalty card and, even before his official grand opening, more than two dozen clients had already filled up their first card.
Green Point Juicery’s menu has regular items, but new juices will be rotated in as the seasons–and Eugene’s imagination–dictate. “I still have so many other ideas for juices and smoothies,” he says.
Green Point Juicery
532 Bloomfield Avenue
Verona, NJ
Mon-Fri: 9 a.m.-8 p.m.
Sat: 9 a.m.-5 p.m.
Sun: 9 a.m.-3 p.m.
Follow them on Facebook or Instagram.
For parking, follow signs to Verona’s municipal lot.
