Time-sensitive customers along Montana Avenue will soon have a new option to fulfill their craving for healthy food with the arrival of Beaming, a juice, food and lifestyle company based in Del Mar.
Beaming's website describes the business as a "gourmet, healthy, fast casual" food company and after building a following in the San Diego area, two stores will open in the Los Angeles area, one in Santa Monica and the other in Brentwood.
The local store, located at 1426 Montana Ave., will stock a selection of grab-and-go products that are produced locally and delivered to the location each day. Smoothies will be made on site and will be available in pre-made to-go bottles.
"At Beaming, we're really carving out our own space," said Founder Lisa Odenweller. "We're an organic juice and superfood company and we also have these cafes."
She said preparing food off site allows for a stronger level of quality control that will create a consistent experience for customers. The system also lends itself to the café environment that fits into a busy schedule of people in Santa Monica.
While other stores offer similar foods or juice products or a family friendly environment, Odenweller said what sets Beaming apart is the combination of products, services and environment. She said the city can support multiple kinds of stores in her market segment in the same way multiple coffee shops can coexist.
"The block that we're going on has a Peet's, Starbucks and Groundworks, three coffee shops on the same block," she said. "For this healthy lifestyle food, there's an opportunity for a lot of us to offer the community something."
The store's products are all organic, vegan and completely plant based. She said there are no traditional breads or meat items.
"Ours is really a lifestyle brand. I designed the menu to promote really delicious food and the majority of what we do is take-out food, grab-and-go that you can pull off the shelf," she said. "The only thing we make on site is superfood smoothies that are made to order."
She said the store has appealed to a wide range of customers in its native Del Mar and she specifically chose Santa Monica due to its neighborhood and family friendly environment. Rachel Rosenberg, Executive Vice President of RKF real estate, helped find the location.
"Beaming's success in Del Mar was entirely organic and community-driven, and the goal in selecting locations for Lisa's first stores in Los Angeles was to find a market that also encourages and embraces local, specialty retail," said Rosenberg. "Residents that frequent Brentwood and Montana Avenue enjoy the best of both worlds; they can dine and shop at premier, upscale retail shops and eateries, and enjoy the ‘small town' feel of their tight-knit neighborhoods. These communities value premium products and services that fit their health-conscious, laid back lifestyles."
Odenweller said Santa Monica will be the flagship store in the first wave of expansion.
"It's the ideal community," she said. "There's a driven demographic of people that want to be healthy and are living a healthy lifestyle and are probably busy and just want convenience but don't want to sacrifice flavor."
matt@www.smdp.com
