Hot Spots for Sports Drinks Chicago
You're probably active, love to move, maybe have a gym membership. Now, in the world of internet dating, where do you and your perfect drink type go to meet? Never fear, there are loads of places. What follows is just a sampling of what you can find in the Chicago.
Meli Café & Juice Bar (www.melicafe.com) is a bright, sunny oasis with a variety of made-to-order juice drinks (including optional wheat grass shots) and smoothies.
Good To Go Jamaican Cuisine (www.goodtogojamaicanjerk.com) has a smaller menu of beverage choice, but the Jamaican-themed menu has some items you might not see elsewhere: Jungle Juice (apple, ginger, celery and cucumber), One Love (carrot, apple and ginger) and Iron Man (carrot, beets and ginger). But don't worry—there are fruit-only drinks available for the veggie-phobes.
Jamba Juice (www.jambajuice.com) offers made-to-order concoctions with healthy add-ins at its various Chicago locations.
For something different than the standard smoothies offered at most juice bars, Ben Tre Café (3146 W. Touhy Ave; 773-465-3011) provides an Asian twist to its drinks, with bubble-tea smoothies in lychee and honeydew flavors.
Osaka Express (400 S. Michigan Ave; 312-566-0118) also produces Asian-themed fruit drinks, including lychee and mango smoothies, with tapioca and mint jelly as optional additions.
Java Bubbles Tea House (5108 N. Broadway St; 773-944-0110) offers more than 50 drinks on its menu, including smoothies, teas, even salted prune juice with soda.
Karyn's Raw (www.karynraw.com) serves vegan delights and various health elixirs, using ingredients such as albizzia flowers, St. John's Wort and Siberian Ginsent. Coconut water is available, as is an oxygen bar.
Ain't That Sweet Café (4315 S. State St; 773-285-CONE) has plenty of sweet items, but several are offered "virgin"(no whipped cream), and they even sell protein and fat-burning shakes.
Jubilee Juice (www.jubileejuice.com) doesn't reinvent the wheel, but it does concoct a topnotch version of the fruit smoothie. Healthy nutrient add-ins optional.
The Fruit Factory (www.thefruitfactory.com) prides itself, and rightly so, on healthy smoothies called JoiJuice that taste delicious without a lot of added dairy products to bulk them up. But if you want something hot, they also sell fruit teas and even fruity hot chocolate.
The Haifa Café (www.haifacafe.com), with several locations across Chicago, offers fresh-squeezed juices and smoothies.
For the fitness club devotees, the Chicago area is full of options for exercise and healthy watering holes. The East Bank Club (www.eastbankclub.com) offers, besides a regular restaurant, a juice bar with fresh-made fruit and vegetable juices. Enraeh Fitness (www.enraehfitness.com) has a juice bar onsite. The upscale Equinox (www.equinoxfitness.com) has its own juice bar in a stylish environment. Fitness Formula (www.fitnessformulaclubs.com) has a more mainstream appeal, but also offers a juice bar. Pilsen World Gym (www.worldgymchicago.com) is a smaller, more intimate club, but it also has a juice bar. The bigger chains, XSport Fitness (www.xsportfitness.com) and Bally's (www.ballyfitness.com) offer juice bars at most locations as well.
Not that this is a complete list of all the healthy drink options in Chicago, but it's a start. Enjoy your day out with your Let's Grab a Drink partner!