Pulling off an easy, healthy breakfast on the go always seems to be one of life’s greatest challenges. The choices are typically a.) make something at home involving grocery shopping, cooking, and cleanup before you have get out the door for school runs, work, and everything else (not easy), b.) grab an egg-and-cheese sandwich (not healthy), c.) or forget the whole thing and just get your usual chai latte (not actually breakfast).
Enter Playa Bowls, a new restaurant about to open in Ridgewood (and coming to Franklin Lakes soon after). The growing East Coast chain doles out hearty, good-for-you bowls based around several main ingredient categories: acai, pitaya (better known as dragon fruit), banana, chia pudding, kale, or coconut. Whichever base you choose, most bowls also include granola; bonus fruit ranging from berries to pineapple; coconut or almond milk; and an extra dose of superfoods ranging from goji berries to hemp seeds to cacao nibs, making for a nutritious, energy-boosting bowl you can have for breakfast (or anytime actually since the place is open through dinnertime too.) The menu also includes a variety of juices, smoothies, and steel-cut oatmeal bowls.
As for the company’s tropical theme, that’s no accident. Playa Bowls was founded by Jersey Shore natives Rob Giuliani and Abby Taylor in 2014 after the duo spent years taking surf trips to places like Hawaii, Panama, Costa Rica, and Nicaragua where they found that most surf towns they stumbled upon offered their own versions of acai or pitaya bowls they quickly became hooked on for both the natural energy boost and the whole deliciousness part.
Well, we may not have much of the way in sun and surf right about now, but at least we can eat like we do ...
Playa Bowls , 305 E Ridgewood Ave, Ridgewood
