Following its grand opening on June 9, the new CoreLife Eatery is now open for business, the first Michigan location of the growing franchise that brands itself as an “active lifestyle” restaurant.
Located at 3158 44th Street, CoreLife Eatery offers a menu dominated by greens, grains, and broth-based dishes, with additional customizable options -- all crafted with ingredients free of trans fats, artificial colors, sweeteners, other additives, and GMOS.
“First and foremost, [CoreLife Eatery] is a restaurant that focuses on healthy eating alternatives, but ones that are also quick,” says Stephen Donnelly, spokesperson for CoreLifeEatery. “People always want to eat healthier, but they don’t have easy access to it, or it’s not affordable, or just not quick enough. So what we wanted to do with the creation of CoreLife eatery is to have a brand that would allow people another option for healthy eating that is also quick.”
Alongside handcrafted fruit drinks like beet lemonade and tropical green tea, CoreLife Eatery’s menu features “green bowls,” “grain bowls,” and “broth bowls” in pre-made recipes, with a fourth create-your-own option. The chicken and steak used in CoreLife bowls are sustainably raised without hormones or antibiotics, and the restaurant’s bone broth is slow-simmered each day.
“People don’t typically get excited about [health food]… so we wanted to make sure we combined a lot of great flavors in our menu,” says Donnelly. “Beyond that, CoreLife Eatery is also really big on making sure people not only eat healthier, but also live healthier.”
Prior to its June 9 official grand opening, CoreLife Eatery Grandville hosted a “pay what you want” day, where guests were invited to dine from the new menu for a donation amount of their own choosing. Following the pre-opening event, 100 percent of the proceeds—a total of $7,173 —was donated to Special Olympics of Michigan.
Donnelly says that events like this are common practice for the CoreLife Brand, which at each of its new locations makes an effort to partner with local health clubs, fitness groups, and yoga studios for community events and fundraisers that promote healthy lifestyles and economic growth in their communities.
“Any new community we go into…we partner with local businesses to put on events not only to encourage people to eat healthier, but also to live healthier, as well,” says Donnelly. “…those events are really important for us, and we do those for every market. One of the things that is important for us is not to just say we want to be involved in the local community, but to actually demonstrate it.”
Since launching its flagship location in Syracuse in 2015, CoreLife Eatery has opened nearly a dozen new franchise locations in in New York and Ohio, with a dozen more scheduled to open throughout the year. CoreLife Eatery Grandville marks the opening of the first Michigan location for the franchise—a deliberate move for the growing company based on the results of extensive market research and review.
“Anytime we go into an area we really look at what is the makeup of the area is and what the community looks like,” says Donnelly. “We do demographic studies to find out more about the population, what the ages are, what the occupations are, what the makeup of kids versus adults is. From what we analyzed, Grandville, in particular, was a really good area for us to be in.”
As one of the cities on the outskirts of the arguably oversaturated downtown Grand Rapids restaurant scene, Donnelly says Grandville presented itself as an opportunity for CoreLife to establish its brand early in a city that is poised for its own growth spurt in the coming years.
“From our perspective, we felt like it was a market that was very synergistic with the brand, somewhere that the brand could thrive,” he says. “We’re excited to be in Grandville, the market has really excited us and welcomed us with open arms and so we’re looking forward to being a part of the local community and giving back to it where we can.”
For more information on CoreLife Eatery’s menu, active lifestyle concept, or upcoming community events, visit www.eatatcore.com or find CoreLife here on Facebook.
Written by Anya Zentmeyer, Development News Editor
Images courtesy of CoreLife Eatery
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