Hello, beauties! Did you know that one of the reasons I started blogging in the first place was to share healthy food and healthy restaurant finds with you guys to make your health endeavors as easy & delicious as humanly possible? Over the years, the blog has turned into a hub for all sorts of things: fitness, lifestyle, fashion, recovery, inspirational Q&A’s, business building advice, follow your heart vibes, TBV Apparel behind the scenes info, general spill-my-life-and-everything-about-it diary… you know, pretty much nothing is off limits around here.
But sometimes it feels really good to get back to the basics, my roots, and blog about FOOD. Health food, that is. Even if I don’t blog about it on the daily, seeking out healthy restaurants in my city and everywhere I travel to is one of my greatest passions. In my off-the-screen life, nearly every day you can find me wandering the aisles of a hole-in-the-wall organic grocery store and/or scrolling through my phone to seek out the nearest up & coming juice bar. Plus, I have my staples that I visit way too often. Kreation Juicery is a staple, and it has been for a longgggg time.
Plus, they have food, which is so deliciously amazing.
Let’s have a little story time real quick:
When I first became vegan and started incorporating delish, cold-pressed juices into my daily routine, there weren’t a WHOLE lot of options for me. I lived in L.A., but it was late 2012 and the juicing boom hadn’t exactly hit yet. There were a couple of decent options, but for the most part they were hippie-hippie (totally fine with me as far as food goes, I’m a hippie-dippie) spots that lacked ambiance, decor and all around great vibes. I am all about the vibe of a place… Even if their food/juice rocks, it has to be a place I want to hang out.
Then I discovered Kreation — a little grab & go juicery in Manhattan Beach that so happened to be directly next to the yoga studio where I worked at the time, The Green Yogi. I was instantly hooked. It was trendy in a “not many people know about this place yet but I know it’s going to blow up & be huge” kind of way, their packaging was awesome and forward-thinking, the people working there were insanely nice and their juice flavors were delicious and had a lot of variety. Kreation soon became a morningly stop for me, and then a twice daily stop, and whenever people came into town to visit I took them by to get a juice or smoothie and go down to the MB Pier for a beach walk.
I felt like it was my little healthy haven down on the beach, by the yoga studio, and super indicative of my new uber healthy lifestyle. It was such a refuge for me as I was finishing up college and felt the overwhelming desire to be in a less structured, more health-minded and creatively stimulating environment. It rocked! I will always remember going in there, chatting with the people working there about my latest mint-blueberry green tea mason jar concoction (before mason jars were a thing, mind you), sipping on a green juice and feeling so utterly in the right place.
Then they opened a Beverly Hills location which was equally convenient when I began working over there, and I could already tell the company was expanding in a good way because they had a made to order smoothie bar and a bigger space to accommodate more customers at once. Plus, right there on Beverly, very trendy area — always a good sign for a growing business.
Of course, as you all know, a lot of things have changed for me over the last few years. I moved to NYC right after college and then moved back to LA last year, I stopped being vegan, and I have tried to disconnect myself from the ultra-health-minded vibes I was putting out there for a while because I had become so obsessive (read: orthorexic). But one thing that has not changed is my love for healthy restaurants, well-made and delicious juices and smoothies, and up and coming healthy spots with great ambiance. I still frequent Kreation ALL the time, although perhaps the two juices per day thing was a little much. (But perhaps not, depending on the day!)
I had the pleasure of attending Kreation West Hollywood’s Grand Opening party last weekend, and woah was it a killer event. As far as juice bars go, this new Kreation location is top of the line. It keeps up with the energy of the trendy WeHo restaurants that surround it, and for a juice & smoothie place (they have really yummy food too, but you know juices and smoothies are my FAV, always) it holds its own entirely. The earthy chic decor and positive energy radiating through the place stole my heart. Between the sleek wooden dining tables, bright green grass covering the outdoor patio, brightly lit refrigerators chalk-full of glowing juices and healthy food options, a super big made to order juice bar, the simple yet colorful block-color menus on the wall, and super friendly staff, Kreation’s got it goin’ ON.
Relish cold-pressed juice mimosas at the launch party 😉
Plus, any party that has body paint, acro yoga, fresh juice cocktails (yes, COCKTAILS), live music and yummy food totally wins me over. I brought two of my girlfriends with me and we had a blast. Afterward we walked around the neighborhood and popped into some fun bars to keep the night going, and I couldn’t help but keep saying, “It’s so COOL that we started our night with a party and cocktails at a juice bar. The world is making shifts in such a good way.”
Plus, Kreation will soon have their liquor license, meaning that there is about to be a sweet new brunch spot in town. Do you know where you’re going to find me every Sunday afternoon from now on if that’s the case…? Not joking. And I say afternoon because obvi I hit up yoga and the farmer’s market every Sunday morning before brunch— balance, duh.
But COLD-PRESSED JUICE MIMOSAS? Yes please.
Also, Kreation just launched on Uber Eats, so if you feel like ordering in versus heading out to their new WeHo location (or any of the westside locations like Montana, Abbott Kinney, Brentwood or Beverly Hills!) you can do that too. I still love my little Brentwood Kreation up the hill from my apartment (literally on my street, actually) but if I am looking for more of a sit-down dining experience or a full meal versus a quick post-workout smoothie, then WeHo is where I will be.
If you live in LA or you’re coming to visit LA soon, you’ve gotta check this spot out. I wouldn’t share it with you if I didn’t 100% believe in it and love what they are doing. Also, do you think I should make “Weekly L.A. Hot Spot” a thing on TBB?! I pretty much already do that in the newsletter each week, but I think it would be a fun weekly installment, kind of like TBV Babe of the Week on Fridays. If so, Kreation is the first weekly hot spot on my list. 😉
And when you’re there, you must get the ENHANCE juice with coconut, coconut water and cacao. Trust me you’ll be in for a major treat. And any / all green smoothies there = amazing.
Hangin’ with the beautiful owner of Kreation, Marjan Sarshar
P.S. Kreation WeHo won major points for me when I popped in there the week that they opened, in the middle of my Carbon38 shoot, and asked them if they would mind blending my protein powder packet from my “Clean” Cleanse Program into a smoothie from their menu. They were super nice about it and blended my packet in without being weird about it. A lot of restaurants develop an attitude in which they would never add something to their food/drink that doesn’t come from in-house, but their laid-back attitude and acceptance really made me happy. I love when a place will do stuff like that. Check them out & show them some love!
ALSO, doing a fun TBV Apparel + Kreation collab very soon, so keep an eye out for that!
More amazing drinkies, food & fun from the party…
