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“I received fiveee on it,” Roberto Brooks sang as he put the lid on an almond milk, peanut butter, banana, strawberry and honey smoothie.
“Typically he’ll sing when he arms prospects their smoothies,” Shamika Brooks, his spouse and enterprise associate, stated.
Collectively the couple personal Hip-Hop Smoothies, which consists of a storefront in northwest Charlotte, a smoothie trailer and a meals truck. Their entrepreneurship journey started with an auspicious begin — in 2018 when Roberto was laid off from his company job. The Brooks noticed this as a chance to create a enterprise they might go right down to their kids whereas concurrently getting their children concerned in entrepreneurship.
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Why Smoothies?
Roberto and their kids at all times cherished good smoothie, however Shamika wasn’t a fan due to the milky base. That’s after they determined to perform a little research and work on the recipes to create dairy-free smoothies that anybody might get pleasure from.
“We discovered that almost all smoothie locations didn’t use actual fruit, they usually added lots of ice,” Shamika stated. “In our smoothies, you get a minimum of two cups of fruit, and we solely have ice in certainly one of our smoothies.”
Amongst their 13 varieties and two detox choices, Shamika favors the Gin & Juice, which has peaches, mango, banana, orange juice, turmeric and ginger powder — however no alcohol.
The Vibe
“We each actually love music. We love Jay Z, we love Biggie and Tupac, and we wished to make it enjoyable,” Shamika stated when requested how the couple selected the restaurant’s identify and vibe. Hip hop is in each side of the enterprise — from the artwork on the partitions and flooring finished by native artists to the identify of every smoothie, like Gangsta’s Paradise and Rapper’s Delight. There’s even a DJ sales space that performs old-school hip hop all day lengthy.
“We get each kind of particular person in right here, from individuals of their 80s to younger children,” Shamika stated. “Our product goes with anyone. Folks simply are available singing and rapping.”
What’s Subsequent?
Since opening the smoothie trailer in 2018, the Brooks determined they’d do one thing completely different so as to add on to the enterprise every year. In order that they a storefront in 2019 and a meals truck in 2020.
So what now, in 2021?
“Overhead for storefronts are excessive, so we’d like to broaden with vans in several market areas like Florida, Georgia, possibly Myrtle Seashore,” she stated.
About Hip-Hop Smoothies
- Web site: hiphopsmoothies.com
- Hours: Tuesday – Friday 11am-7pm; Saturday: 11-6pm
- Handle: 249 Mt. Holly-Huntersville Street, Suite 210, Charlotte NC 28214
- Telephone: 980-938-6702
