As one chapter closes for smoothie café Fruitive, another starts, 1,000 steps away

Smoothie café Fruitive has closed its CityCenter location, focusing its strategy instead on its nearby Penn Quarter location

Its remaining location in Penn Quarter sits at the corner of D and Seventh streets NW.

The move, the result of market changes, allows the business to focus on expanding its brand.

The business held a campaign from Sept. 28 to Oct 4 called Steps for Smoothies to remind customers that its Penn Quarter location remains open. The café offered customers a free drink if they walked 1,000 steps.

The owner of the café, Gregg Rozeboom, said he wanted to give back to his customers during this transition, adding that the customer response didn’t disappoint.

“We launched it, and it was incredible,” said Rozeboom. “We had so many people coming in and saying we saw this on TikTok. We gave away about $16,000’s worth of product last week, well over 1,000 smoothies that we gave away.”

Fruitive, a family-owned business, first opened its original café in 2012 in Virginia Beach, Virginia. The business expanded to D.C. farmers markets in 2014, and to the CityCenter location in 2015.

Fruitive has not appeared at farmers markets since the COVID-19 pandemic. Since the pandemic, Fruitive has faced some challenges, which influenced its decision to close its CityCenter location.

“We never hit our pre-COVID numbers in CityCenter; we never got our traction back,” Rozeboom said.

In Penn Quarter, “we have a bigger space, more seating, and we’re really trying to regroup after years of struggling after COVID,” he said.

The Penn Quarter location is more central, he added.

Diego Bandera, manager of the café, has been with Fruitive for only six months. He said he has seen positive change since the recent moves and wants to continue providing quality healthy food.

One change is implementing a self-service ice-cream machine, bringing organic ice cream to the menu.

“We’re the only company in the city who has it right now,” said Bandera. “It’s mixed with organic frozen food so it’s really nice.”

Rozeboom said he didn’t want the steps campaign just to be about raising awareness of the change in location but wanted his customers to pay attention to their fitness and health.

“It went beyond just us raising awareness of us moving locations, it encouraged people to be more aware of how much walking they’re getting in,” Rozeboom said.

One customer of the CityCenter location; Stacey Wells, said she was disappointed the location closed but was happy that one of her favorite cafes is still in the area.

“I’m glad that they are still in the same area basically. I love getting their smoothies every week,” said Wells. “They are one of the very few cafes in the area that sell organic based drinks.”

According to Bandera, Fruitive is the only café in the area that completely works with organic fruits.

“We don’t really have to compete with other people because we have a very particular customer,” Bandera said. “It’s people who actually care about their health and they care about what they’re putting into their body.”

Rozeboom said he hopes Fruitive will continue thriving and growing in the community.

“We want to treat our community the way we want our own family treated,” Rozeboom said. “That’s the heart that goes into our food and our bodies.”