Richard Cummings
In the heart of the Central West End—amid cookie shops, ice cream parlors, and burger bars—there’s now a place that takes care of both your heart and your stomach.
Rush Bowls, a franchise that originated in Boulder, Colorado, opened this past Monday next door to the Schlafly branch of the St. Louis Public Library system. It's the fourth location in the nation, after Boulder, Denver, and Nashville.
“It’s not often that St. Louis is on the forefront of a trend,” says Kim Moroney, who owns the franchise with her husband, Ken. “But we really think the city is ready for something like this.”
Rush Bowls are complete meals of blended fruits and vegetables, Moroney explains, either served in a bowl and topped with granola and honey, or as a smoothie. Each menu item contains three to five servings of frozen fruits and vegetables and up to 40 grams of protein, thanks to nutritious additives, such as nut butters, seeds, and whey. But unlike many smoothie places, there are no added sugars or preservatives.
“As working parents to two girls, we were always looking for something healthy that we could eat on the run,” says Maroney, a cardiac nurse at Barnes-Jewish Hospital. “When my husband heard about Rush Bowls, we felt it was the ideal place.”
The menu lists 35 types of smoothies and bowls. Among the options:
- Peanut Butter & Jelly: Combines fat-free frozen yogurt with bananas, strawberries, house-ground peanut butter, and homemade fruit jam
- If Looks Could Kale: Blitzes kale, spinach, frozen fruit, and guava juice
- Poe’s Hangover: A soothing melange of orange, apple and prickly pear juices, oat bran, and a boost of multivitamins.
- Beach Bowl: The signature bowl combines the highly antioxidant fruit and açaí with mango, banana, and guava juice.
Any bowl or smoothie can be custom-ordered, and all dietary restrictions can be accommodated. “We just can’t do fruit-free!” Maloney says.
For now, Rush Bowl’s weekday hours (6:30 a.m.–7 p.m.) are designed to coincide with the early hospital shift, which Maloney says begins at 7 a.m.
