Malamiah Juice Bar held a ribbon cutting last week to celebrate the opening of its second West Michigan location, this one in the new space shared with Peacelab Yoga Studio at 5570 Wilson Ave. SW in Grandville.
“The opportunity for the actual space came to us,” says Anissa Eddie, who co-owns Malamiah with husband Jermale. “Peacelab Yoga Studio asked if we would consider placing a juice bar in there, and that’s something we’ve been looking at for a while…to have a space that was already move-in ready was such a blessing.”
The Eddies launched Malamiah Juice Bar as one of the first tenants in the Grand Rapids Downtown Market in 2013 — an opportunity Anissa says has allowed them to flourish to the point they’re at now.
“It was really an ideal place for us to start; we were an unknown entity,” she says. “To be a brand new family-owned startup, the market gave us a perfect platform to really launch our brand and develop who we were with a lot of support. Not only from the general market staff but it was really a community story among other tenants.”
She says starting their business alongside other small, family-owned entrepreneurs allowed them to brainstorm and troubleshoot together, to lean on each other for support.
“It was really, really helpful because I think if we would have started in any other spot on our own, it would have made the process more difficult. I definitely don’t think we’d be at the point of a second location without that.”
Alongside its juice bar menu, Malamiah seeks to root itself in the community with a larger mission of health education and youth empowerment, working alongside community organizations to offer educational opportunities as well as internships. Both are the kind of programs they're looking to expand further as their Grandville location becomes more established.
“[It’s] really exciting to look at how these things we’ve piloted in Grand Rapids can work in Grandville,” she says.
For hours and more information, visit www.malamiahjuicebar.com.
Written by Anya Zentmeyer, Development News Editor
Images courtesy of Malamiah Juice Bar
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