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Create your own colorful, fruit-packed acai bowl at the newest addition to The Village at San Antonio Center.
Palmetto Superfoods, an acai bowl and smoothie spot with 10 locations in the Bay Area, is hosting the grand opening of its new Mountain View outpost Saturday, July 26. Situated between Slice House by Tony Gemignani and not-yet-opened Kona Island Coffee, Palmetto Superfoods offers classic bases like acai and mango, as well as more unique offerings like matcha-avocado and ube-blackberry.
There is no additional charge for customizing your acai bowl at Palmetto – you can choose whatever combination of bases, proteins, granolas, fruits and toppings you’d like and the price remains the same ($8.95-$15.95, depending on bowl size).
“Every single time you visit Palmetto Superfoods, you have the freedom to create a different bowl or smoothie,” said Sheana Soriano, marketing coordinator for Palmetto Superfoods.
Palmetto does not use any seed oils, said founder Charles Lee. Granolas, which come in flavors such as roasted coffee and choco-churro, are made with olive oil or coconut oil. The company makes its own version of Nutella that does not contain palm oil and only has two grams of coconut sugar per serving.
Lee builds his acai bowl with acai, coconut beach (made with coconut milk, coconut cream, agave, coconut nectar and molasses), blue chia pudding, cinnamon steel-cut protein oats, all the fresh fruits (strawberries, blueberries, banana, mango, pineapple and kiwi), mulberries and cacao nibs. He said he eats acai bowls at any time of day – as breakfast, lunch, after a workout, as light dinner or for dessert.
“At the end of the day, if I’m craving a little bit of something sweet but I don’t want to eat ice cream and I don’t want it to go get milk tea, I just grab some acai and that satisfies my cravings,” he said.
In addition to acai bowls, Palmetto also offers 10 types of smoothies ($9.95-$13.95). Recent additions include the Let Me Love You, with Palmetto’s pitaya dragonfruit base, strawberries, banana, avocado, dates, coconut milk, a swirl of Palmetto’s coconut beach base and liposomal collagen peptide, which supports gut health, anti-aging properties and enhanced muscle recovery, according to Soriano.
The idea to create Palmetto began in 2015, when Lee became a fan of Brazilian restaurant Cafe de Casa in San Francisco. He built a friendship with owners Thais and Amanada Moreira, and in 2019, the three of them plus Hessam Shirmohammadi opened the first location of Palmetto Superfoods in 2019. The business sources its acai from its own farm in Brazil.
The new Mountain View store, which soft opened June 13, features palm tree wallpaper, a neon sign reading “The Better Treat,” four chairs and a bench inside and two tables outside. It’s larger than the Santana Row store, but smaller than Burlingame’s, according to Soriano.
For its grand opening, the first 100 customers will receive a free Palmetto Superfoods tote bag with qualifying purchase. There will also be giveaways, where five customers will win prizes, such as Palmetto Superfoods gift cards or AirPods.
Palmetto continues to expand – it plans to open additional locations in San Ramon, Livermore, Sacramento and Beverly Hills by the end of the summer, according to Soriano, and is in the process of opening stores in Berkeley, Waikiki, Cupertino and Fremont, according to its website. The company is even looking to expand to Asia, Lee said.
In addition to opening more stores, Lee is also interested in eventually rolling out functional popsicles with protein and collagen, and introducing Palmetto products into grocery aisles.
“We want healthy, delicious food and healthy treats to be more accessible everywhere,” Lee said.
Palmetto Superfoods, 565 California St., Suite 83, Mountain View; 415-234-0913, Instagram: @palmettosuperfoods. Open Wednesday and Thursday from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m., Friday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. and Saturday from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Beginning Sunday July 27, open daily from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m.
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