Last month, it was announced that local healthful food business Squeeze Juicery will be one of three commercial tenants to occupy the ground floor of the new mixed-used building at 770 Elmwood between Cleveland and Auburn Avenues.
Squeeze owner Chris DeLorenzo says the new store is expected to open March 1 and will be closely modeled after Squeeze’s original location on Main Street in Williamsville, which will remain in operation. That means smoothies, cold-pressed juices, salads, wraps, and to-go items like house-prepared hummus.
If a recent trip to Squeeze on Main Street is any indication of what to expect come spring, Elmwood Village residents who subscribe to a clean-eating philosophy (as well as those, like me, who sometimes interrupt the monotony of their hedonistic lifestyles with healthy food), are sure to be pleased. In addition to an extensive menu of 16-ounce bottled juices and nut milks, which many people use as meal replacements, Squeeze serves two-ounce juice shots doctored up with herbs and spices for customers looking to reap the healthful benefits of such things in a more concentrated form. I threw back a spicy “Celebrate” shot of celery, apple, and lemon juice with ginger and cayenne, which helped assuage the nachos-and-margaritas guilt I had been shouldering that weekend.
Squeeze also offers acai bowls—the spoonable, toppings-loaded, acai berry-based smoothies of Pinterest fame. The “Redemption Song” (pictured) is a camo green-hued blend of acai, almond milk, spinach, kale, banana, and mango covered with sliced bananas, jewel-like goji berries, and cinnamon granola, that last of which lends necessary and pleasant crunch. It was like eating a virtuous ice cream sundae, sans the processed sugars and dairy.
If savory is more your speed, Squeeze offers salads like the “Hotel California” (arugula, farro, quinoa, red bell peppers, corn, grape tomatoes, spicy sunflower seeds, and goat cheese with a cilantro-jalapeño vinaigrette) and wrap sandwiches. The “Rapper’s Delight” (pictured)—a mélange of pesto hummus, arugula, roasted red peppers, portobellos, sundried tomatoes, pine nuts, and mozzarella encased in a spinach tortilla—is a hearty option for those days when kale-parsley juice just won’t cut it.
Much of Squeeze’s food and drink program, including its popular one-, three-, and five-day juice cleanse packages, will transfer to the Elmwood location intact, but the additional space in Buffalo will give DeLorezo the opportunity to branch out in other directions with the menu. It will also mean a more sizable seating area than in Williamsville, which I’m sure will prove to be a welcome place of respite and replenishment for village residents and weary Elmwood Avenue shoppers alike in 2016.
Squeeze Juicery | 770 Elmwood Avenue | Buffalo NY | See current menu