Drink Fresh!!!

The moment we were asked to write the blog, I knew it had to be on “Fruit shop On Greams Road”. There are a million vendors selling fresh fruit juices in Chennai, but Fruit Shop had managed to differentiate itself from the others. So simple, yet so unique.

I happened to visit the Fruit Shop outlet in Besant Nagar. The outlet is strategically located at the start of the theosophical road, which happens to be one of the prime localities in Chennai. The franchise had taken the apartment for rent on the ground floor and converted it to an outlet.

The ambiance was by far the best that one can experience in any of the juice shops in Chennai. It was fully air conditioned and there were portraits of famous celebrities such as Marlyn Monroe and Curt Cobain on the walls. The paintings were in black and white, in contrast to the walls that were colourful. It was obvious that they were targeting the middle and upper middle class.

The hall of the apartment was the entry to the outlet and had the billing counter and two tables. The hall led into two other rooms where they served customers. In one of the rooms, the majority of the tables were small and had only chairs in each of them. Fruit shop apparently gets a lot of their business from young couples. The flagship or the USP of this outlet is that, it has huge parking space. These days parking space plays an important role when it comes to selecting hang out places. I am sure there are malls/supermarkets/stores which you avoid, because of lack of parking space. I also saw a lot of people sitting in their cars and placing the orders. In fact majority of the orders were from drive inns. They encourage drive inns as it gives them additional capacity indoors to serve customers.

I went inside and ordered for a menu card. The menu card was simple and clear. It was a simple laminated sheet with juices on one side and milk shakes on the other. The cheapest drink was their Lime Juice/Lime Mint Cooler that was priced at Rs 25 and the most expensive juice was the Very Berry Juice priced at Rs 125.They had a wide variety of fresh juices ranging from common juices such as orange, sweet lime and grape to exotic fruits such as Kiwi and Passion Fruit. Apart from juices and shakes, the menu also listed desserts (Caramel and Custard) and ice cream sodas. The innovative names given to juices namely Jughead Special and Flosbury Flop did manage to catch my attention.

The waiters were very calm and cordial and had a good knowledge of the juices they offered. I decided to go by what the waiter considered their speciality,”The Jughead Special”. It’s a milk shake with vanilla ice as its base with bits of raisins, dates and bananas. The shake was served in a short but wide glass and topped with raisins and nuts. The way they served the juice differentiated them from the other juice vendors. The shake was rich, filling and a perfect blend of the ingredients with no taste from a particular ingredient standing out. In all it was a very enriching experience.

Narayan
FT13444