Playa Bowls: refreshing, refueling and relaxing. It’s hard to find adequate words to describe the food and drink chain that is rapidly connecting with beach residents and summer vacationers all along the Jersey Shore. But it’s an attempt to position how the Playa Bowl’s brand stuck when others failed. When I say Playa Bowls exerts a healthy, creative take on "how to live, and how to live well," I think their customers would agree, and even caption it in their glorious, sun-tinting Instagram post of their fruit bowls.
The base of most of Playa Bowls consists of “smoothied” Acai and Pitaya, superfruits native to Latin America. The toppings are varied enough to suit your funky tastes by way of fresh fruit, goji berries, granola, nuts, honey, coconut, peanut and almond butter, nutella, chia seeds, and bee pollen. It is clearly the more economical, healthy and diverse option than the typical shore cuisine (I’m talking about you, fried Oreos).
As a woman that aspires to one day own her own business, I really, really wanted to meet the geniuses behind a brand that has become so trendy, it has its own hashtag on social media.
Recently my wish came true because one of the managing partners, Desi Saran, took some time out of his extremely busy schedule (Playa Bowls just opened two new locations in the past two months) to chat a little bit about the culture, work ethic and latest business enterprises of Playa Bowls.
“For every entrepreneur I have met it’s the same story — ‘I had a million failures,’” says Desi. “But if you believe you have the potential, and you are willing to wear a lot of the hats, then you have a chance. I was able to develop a lot of skill sets because I pushed myself to try,” says Desi.
Desi graduated from Rutgers in 2007 to begin a career as the next Wolf of Wall Street. After leaving corporate life to work at a start-up, he fell in love with the entrepreneurship world. From digital magazines to apparel brands, Desi worked at creating his own companies until he was approached by Rob Giuliani and Abby Taylor, the founding partners of Playa Bowls.
My admiration for Playa Bowls almost led me to nixing a major-related summer internship so I could live down the shore and bustle away at crafting exotic, granola-induced bowls. And I should have gone that path because the Playa Bowls partners appreciate their hard-working employees. Rob, Abby and Desi understand how critical their employees were, and still are, in extending the Playa tie past its start on Belmar’s 8th Avenue. I asked Desi what exactly I was missing out on.
“Every time you walk into a Playa Bowls store you are entering a beach atmosphere with the crafted surfboards, branded tank tops and energizing music. Our employees take pride in that and they love working for us,” explained Desi. “Every time we open a new store we have an unlimited applicant pool. A lot of people apply because they think it’s a cool place to work, but they understand what they are getting into.”
Desi assures me that being an employee of Playa Bowls isn’t only hard work.
“It’s fun too. When it isn’t as busy our employees enjoy themselves a little bit by turning up the music and dancing. We treat them well by taking them out to dinner and holding competitions to win prizes. We appreciate them because they don’t just want a check but they want to help us make the business even better.”
It seems that even if I had jumped on the Playa train, I would have been one applicant of what appears to be a pretty, passionately driven pool. But, I soon found out that my hope of becoming a Playa Bowl employee isn’t totally out of the question.
Just three weeks ago, Rob, Abby, and Desi announced that they are pursuing a storefront in the original Hansel ‘N Griddle, the home of about 48,000 undergraduates and 19,000 graduate Scarlet Knights. As a fan I was ecstatic, but as a business prospector, I wanted to know how they analyzed the value of this real estate.
“We are planning on opening at Rutgers in the future for a couple of reasons. Besides myself, one of my other partners, Rob, graduated from Rutgers in ’05. It was where we received our education, built connections, and met friends that we remain close with to this day. But at the other end, Rutgers has done a lot for us. Last year we won first place in the Rutgers Business School annual business plancompetition which helped us secure and create our first store in Belmar,” Desi shared. “A large majority of our customers also come from Rutgers. When we announced we were hoping of opening a Rutgers location, we got a lot of great feedback. It wasn’t just students either, faculty were excited as well.”
their furthest mark from their original location in Belmar. We all know
entrepreneurs don’t stop when they get going so I inquired about life beyond
Rutgers. And Desi’s response was exactly what I wanted to hear.
“We are currently franchising and looking to expand into strategic towns. We have been getting inquiries from all over New Jersey and even inquiries from out-of-state — Florida, California, South Carolina, Pennsylvania. Three to five years from now we want to have locations across the U.S. But we want a national brand with authenticity that doesn’t get lost in the expansion.”
And yet with all this focus on expansion, “business as usual” doesn’t go away. Everyone wants a bite, but I have found that I am never waiting in line for long.
“Thank you. That compliment means a lot,” says Desi. “That has been our biggest operational hurdle due to the volume. So we have hired more staff, formulated an assembly line, and created stations that can produce a lot of bowls but stay up to par with our standard of quality. Another important factor is maintaining the look of the bowls, or their presentation.”
Throughout our interview Desi shared many meaningful thoughts, but one phrase that really stood out to me was this; “Playa Bowls is like a Rutgers company.” He, like thousands of anxious fans, hopes Playa Bowls can give back to where its roots came from.
Don’t miss out on what all your friends are talking about, dig into the menu at http://www.playabowls.com/.
And follow the best modern art I have yet to see in a museum on their social: Instagram and Facebook.
