Today we’d like to introduce you to Adriano Pereira Nasal.
Thanks for sharing your story with us Adriano. So, let’s start at the beginning and we can move on from there.
I’m a Brazilian who came to America 13 years ago to teach jiu-jitsu. This sport has been a huge part of my life for many years and as a competitor and professor, I really pay attention to what I eat. I strongly believe that good food is the most powerful tool to a great performance inside and outside the mat. In Brazil, we have a variety of fruits and vegetables available pretty much everywhere and my favorite pre/post-workout meal was always an Açaí Bowl. After a few years in the US, I still struggled with finding a fruitful and flavorful acai, so I decided to open my own place and offer the authentic Brazilian Açaí Bowls.
We started with a small store right next to our gym in Tustin seven years ago, we didn’t have any experience running a food store or making bowls, but we had the passion for açaí and the commitment to always bring the best to our customers. Today we currently have 6 stores opened, just now began to ranch out as a franchise and we are thrilled to share our passion for açaí with more and more people every day!
We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
The first challenge we found as a business was that not that many people knew about acai seven years ago. So, in the beginning, we would walk through the neighborhood and distribute samples and flyers to everyone in the streets.
Little by little people started coming to our store and telling their friends and family about our delicious acai. After a while, we would even have people coming from other cities and that inspired us to start opening more locations. Nowadays, we have over 15.000 people visiting our locations every month and this number keeps growing every year.
Another challenge for us was finding the best work system to deliver high quality, fresh acai to our customers with the minimum waiting time. Because we were new in the food business, we learned a lot by trial and error until we consolidate our menu and set up the way it is these days. We are proud to offer a flavorful, fresh acai bowl within less then five minutes of wait.
So let’s switch gears a bit and go into the Acai Republic story. Tell us more about the business.
Acai Republic is a Brazilian Juice Bar specialized in Acai Bowls. We also offer a variety of smoothies and juices, besides typical Brazilian pastries as Coxinha and Pao de Queijo. We are known as the best Acai Bowls in the county and are very proud to offer the authentic Brazilian Acai Bowls.
Our bowls are made with Certified Organic Acai coming straight from the Amazon Forest in Brazil, fresh fruits and high-quality granola.
That is our secret to guarantee a flavorful and fruitful acai bowl, we use the pure acai and fresh fruits in our bowls while other places use pre-made acai blends and mix with other ingredients like apple juice or vegetable milk.
Has luck played a meaningful role in your life and business?
Luck barely had a role in my business. It was all 100% non-stop hard work since day one and the desire to learn and to always be better at what we do.
Contact Info:
- Address: Tustin: 632, El Camino Real – 92780
Newport Beach: 648, Avocado Av. – 92660
Laguna Niguel: 27020, Alicia Pkwy #B – 92677
Corona: 2225 Eagle Glen Pkwy #B104 – 92883
Huntington Beach: 7862, Warner Ave #107 – 92647 - Website: acairepublic.com
- Email: newport@acairepublic.com
- Instagram: AcaiRepublic
- Facebook: Acai Republic
- Yelp: Acai Republic
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