Mr. Smoothie Offers Refreshing Atmosphere and Custom Drinks

By Kirsten Petersen

While most people recognize Mr. Smoothie as a food court offering or snack at the gym, the franchise’s new location in College Park serves as a training ground for people hoping to someday open their own smoothie shops.

The College Park location, just off of Route 1 near Buffalo Wild Wings and IKEA, replaced the Robeks in May. This is the third Mr. Smoothie store in Maryland and joins several other shops along the East coast.

Operations Manager Jorge Cedillo said that employees are trained to provide informed, high quality customer service so they can become owners and managers of their own stores.

“We just customize your drink here. People really love it,” Cedillo said, adding, “You have to hear the customers. They’re asking for this? I’m going to get it.”

Mr. Smoothie offers fresh-squeezed fruit juice, smoothies, frozen coffee and non-fat frozen yogurt. All of the smoothies are made with fresh fruit and natural ingredients—no syrups or artificial sugars here.

The water used for drinks and ice goes through a multi-step purification process, and if a customer has a food allergy, a sanitized pitcher will be used to make the smoothie.

Roxanne Villafuerte, who is training to become an assistant manager, said that the most popular products are the smoothies and the frozen yogurt.

The “green smoothies,” which include vegetables like spring greens, spinach and kale are surprisingly good.

“I sampled each one and they’re very different. People don’t expect them to taste like they do,” Villafuerte said.

Philip Connolly of Washington, DC ordered a green smoothie when he stopped by Mr. Smoothie Wednesday afternoon. A safety and health manager, Connolly said he looks for different ways to get his daily serving of vegetables.

“I always like something that will cleanse my system and eat healthy, and if this is another way to eat vegetables, that’s great,” Connolly said.

Villafuerte said the self-serve frozen yogurt, which comes in rich flavors like Dreamy Dark Chocolate, Watermelon Sorbet and Candy Bar Smash, is popular with children. Customers can add fruit and candy toppings to the yogurt, which costs $0.49 per ounce.

Mr. Smoothie’s clientele in College Park includes businesspeople, apartment residents and athletes. The shop is busiest in the evenings and on the weekends, although Tuesdays nights get busy after diners at Buffalo Wild Wings leave trivia night, Villafuerte said.

Nancy Portillo of Lanham works as a cashier and makes drinks at Mr. Smoothie. This is her first summer job.

“When it gets really busy it’s fun because you’re multitasking,” Portillo said. “It’s a rush.”

Patrick Minnich of Silver Spring, who works at Euro Gourmet as a business analyst, is a regular at Mr. Smoothie. His favorite smoothie is Banana and Peanut Butter and his favorite frozen coffee is Cookies and Cream.

“I think their smoothies are pretty good. I like their frozen coffee,” Minnich said. “Their prices are pretty good. They always use fresh fruit, which I think is pretty nice.”

Minnich prefers Mr. Smoothie to Robeks because the customer have more say in what ends up in the cup.

“Robecks has pre-selected flavor combinations,” he said, adding that employees at Mr. Smoothie “always make recommendations.”

Cedillo said the location was chosen because Mr. Smoothie wanted to target a clientele that includes both students and people at work.

“Students are conscious about what they’re eating or drinking—they’re my clients. People who work in this area who are looking for something healthy to drink? They’re my customers too,” Cedillo said.

Although there are fewer students in College Park during the summer, Cedillo believed this was the perfect time to open a new location.

“We were thinking here that the yogurt would be the big hit of the summer, but we also knew the green drinks would be great in the winter too because people are looking for fruit,” he said.

The interior of the restaurant has a tropical theme—the walls are painted in bright blues, magenta and yellow and customers can enjoy their drinks at a surfboard bar.

Cedillo said this design and the service encourages customers to come back.

“People love it here. It’s like a hangout place,” Cedillo said. “There’s the atmosphere, the energy we have, and the nice people who are willing to help you out.”

Helping customers make the most of their experience at Mr. Smoothie is the priority at every store, Cedillo said.

“We want to make sure you’re coming back, because that’s the way it should be,” Cedillo said.

Mr. Smoothie is open from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. everyday at 10260 Baltimore Ave.