Joshua LurieAt the Original Farmers Market, longtime bartender Jason Bran — formerly of the Roger Room and Tiki No — is applying his knack for mixing and matching liquid flavors to his new juice, smoothie and produce stall called Greenhouse, which he recently opened with partner John Chae.
Bran’s juices are all 100 percent fresh, with no pasteurization or shelf stabilization, and he's combining flavors in ways he would behind the bar at the Warwick, the Hollywood bar where he manages the cocktail program by night.
Liquid Greens combines kale, apple, lemon and ginger. Red Alert features cold-pressed beet juice, apple, carrot, orange and lemon. Fresh juices cost $6 for 12-ounce pours and $7 for 16-ounce ones.
The former memorabilia store and pharmacy now features shelves of produce that Bran and Chae are initially sourcing from downtown L.A.’s wholesale produce market. “The goal is to build relationships with farms and farmers in Southern California so we can buy specific things from them,” Bran says.
Credit: Joshua Lurie
A blackboard menu tells only part of the story. “We’re a produce store, so if you want something weird, I have no problem grabbing it.” Bran also is using Greenhouse as a hub for prepping large batches of fresh juice for events (yes, there's a demand for that in L.A.). The public benefits from that as well, since they can buy bulk batches of juice for home cocktail parties.
Greenhouse also peddles juice’s cousin, the smoothie ($8). Bran is particularly proud of Piña Kale-Ada, which features frozen, house-made coconut milk, pineapple, mango and kale. Performance Smoothies ($9) include Berry Strong with vanilla-lucuma protein, blueberry, banana, almond butter and hemp milk.
Sugarcane juice is also forthcoming, as soon as Bran can find a reliable source.
6333 W. Third St., downtown; (323) 424-3050, farmersmarketla.com/merchant/merchantDetails/100.
Joshua Lurie is the L.A.-based founder of Food GPS. Follow him on Instagram and Twitter.
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