Heavenly Fresh

OTHELLO — Heavenly Fresh, a juice bar in Othello focused on health drinks and nutrition, officially opened for business in mid-July after a burglary delayed the opening. Now, business is slowly picking up, said the business’s owners Emily Cordero and her husband Salvador De Jesus Solano.

“This month mainly has been picking up,” Cordero said. “Last month was pretty slow, the month before that was okay. But yeah, we would prefer to have more people.”

Cordero and Solano initially had planned to provide a gaming space to attract younger clientele, but after multiple TVs, consoles and devices were stolen during the burglary on June 14, they had to push that goal down the road.

Heavenly Fresh persevered through the setback and opened its brick-and-mortar location on Hemlock Street. Prior to opening the shop, Cordero and Solano delivered drinks to clients, working out of their homes. Heavenly Fresh still offers delivery in addition to the juice bar.

Police have yet to catch the parties responsible for the burglary, Cordero said, and none of the items stolen from the juice bar have been recovered. Heavenly Fresh was uninsured at the time of the burglary.

“Right now we're just in the unknown,” Cordero said. “We're protecting ourselves by putting cameras everywhere. We have quite a few and we changed the locks everywhere and we're doing everything that we can to stay safe.”

Since opening, sales have not usually been enough to fully cover expenses, but Cordero said they have had overwhelming support from their friends and family. As far as the GoFundMe Cordero set up to help cover the cost of the stolen items, Heavenly Fresh had only raised $745 of its $5,000 goal as of Oct. 19.

“We're trying to create new drinks so people can come and make orders,” Cordero said. “I think my main goal is just word of mouth, telling as many people as I can about the business, and if they want to donate, we still have our GoFundMe open.”

Heavenly Fresh also relies on a few regular clients, Cordero said.

“They really like the drinks that we make and how healthy they make them feel. So we're very grateful for our regulars,” she said.

Solano said they have had a few younger clients, but not many.

“I don't think they're really interested in the healthy,” Cordero said. “They want mainly coffee and energy, and at the moment we still haven't found a way to incorporate that in a healthy manner … Most of our clients are mainly, you know, gymnasts or people with health conditions, like diabetes, high blood pressure, anemia, in the range of 30 (years old) and above.”

Cordero said she would like to be able to serve a wider range of people in Othello and hopes more people will visit the shop.

Before opening Heavenly Fresh, Cordero said she worked at Columbia Basin Health Association at Women, Infants and Children services, which, according to CBHA’s website, is a state-funded nutrition program that provides free health education, food and other services to underserved families.

“We would talk about ways to lose weight, about ways to be healthier, ways to prevent pre-diabetics from becoming diabetics, so I have quite a bit of training and knowledge in that,” Cordero said.

Heavenly Fresh’s juices are aimed at helping individuals with their digestive system, immune system, energy levels, nutrition and other health goals, said Cordero. The juices use all-natural ingredients in unique combinations.

Solano said once they get more gaming systems for the juice bar, they can start attracting more young people, with the goal of helping educate them on nutrition and providing healthier options, as well as a space for them to spend time in.

“Our first plan was for the kids,” Solano said. “To help the kids and also to have entertainment (for them), because some kids, they just want to hang out on the streets. And we want to help with that. I mean this is a healthy environment.”

Solano said most of their sales are in-person orders, but that they intend to keep the delivery aspect of their business going as the juice bar grows. Cordero said they will soon begin using the drive-through window in the shop as well.

Heavenly Fresh’s plans for the future if everything goes well and the business grows include offering more events for the community, offering pre-made juices from the shop and bottled beverages and potentially another location in Tri-Cities.

“My main motivation right now is just to help the community be healthier,” Cordero said. “That's our main goal, to offer healthy options to the community.”

Gabriel Davis may be reached at gdavis@columbiabasinherald.com. Download the Columbia Basin Herald app on iOS and Android.

Want to help?

To support Heavenly Fresh’s GoFundMe, visit gofund.me/2bf1bc25.

Heavenly Fresh

126 E. Hemlock St.

Othello, WA 99344

Hours of operation:

Monday-Saturday

8 a.m. to 7 p.m.