Amazon Juices, owned by Cafe Brasil, signed a five-year lease to the Global Village Cafe (GVC) space and will open by the end of 2015.
Amazon Juices — located on 41st Avenue in Capitola — is nearly two years old and specializes in juices, acai bowls, sandwiches and salads, but will also offer coffee and Kelly’s French Bakery pastries and desserts on campus.
“[Associate university librarian] John Bono first approached us because he saw how we work here [at Cafe Brasil on Mission Street], and said that this would be perfect,” said Amazon Juices co-owner Natasha Malia. “At the library they don’t have a full kitchen, and here we do everything without a kitchen. It’s kind of like a perfect fit.”
Unlike its sister restaurant Cafe Brasil, Amazon Juices has a broader juice and acai bowl menu. It will offer cold-pressed bottled juices as well as fresh squeezed fruit and vegetable juices. The UC Santa Cruz location’s menu will also feature chicken, tri-tip, veggie and wild salmon rice bowls along with 16 different sandwiches and salads.
Establishments owned by Cafe Brasil source local food from Watsonville, Aptos and Carmel-by-the-Sea. They will introduce an app that allows students to order and pay online, and pick up at the cafe. Like the previous tenant of Global Village Cafe — Hoffman’s — Amazon Juices will use compostable containers and utensils, but there will be no credit card minimum for purchases.
Malia and her two other co-owners hope to employ the Hoffman’s student workers along with more students in general. Since parking is difficult by the McHenry area, Malia expressed that hiring students, who are already on campus, is preferable.
“We want to be there to stay. The Cafe Brasil family, Amazon Juice family, we want to be there forever, if we can,” Malia said. “Cafe Brasil has been feeding students for 25 years, it fits right in. It’s a different adventure.”
