Zen Bowls building community through positivity-infused food
To plant roots in Kingston
Published:Thursday | August 8, 2024 | 12:09 AMShanel Lemmie/Staff Reporter
Answering the call for holistic local gastronomy, in 2021, Mark Wright launched Zen Bowls as a food truck geared towards providing smoothies and acai bowls. Initially launched in Montego Bay, the former aviation mechanic told Food he is now ready to take the endeavour to the capital city.
Reflecting on his journey thus far, he said, “It’s been open for about three years. I really just love the vibe that we get from everyone. Everyone’s always so enthusiastic and happy and just willing to support and come find us wherever we go. So it’s just been a really great journey.”
Though Wright plans to keep the iconic blue-and-white food truck that has grown to become the company’s signature facility, he is excited to plant roots at 22 Barbican Road with a building.
“It’s a brand-new building. We have a deck out front as well, we even have a fire pit. We just want to have cool events and do speakeasy vibes. We’re gonna have psilocybin mushrooms and infused chocolates and teas from the The Psily Shop in Negril. We just have this space that’s gonna capture [that beautiful] relaxing [feeling] like you’re in Thailand.”
When he started in 2021, it was out of a desire to build a community that valued health.
“When I was living overseas, I had fallen in love with the acai bowl and I was just like ‘no man, Jamaica need this’. So that’s a part of why I came back. I was working in aviation, I used to fix airplanes and helicopters and I just had a big change of heart. I really wanted to come back to Jamaica and [have] a positive impact on society,” he began.
“I had started a previous acai bowl business and that partnership started to become a bit unfavourable. They wanted to start using sugar and a bunch of stuff that I didn’t really agree with, in the name of profit of course. So I decided to separate from that business and I had started over essentially with Zen Bowls. So it was just me doing it alone until now I’m building out a team.”
He continued, “The goal of Zen Bowls for me is to build a healthier Jamaica. I believe our gut is our second brain, so, if you’re putting unhealthy stuff constantly in your gut, it’s gonna affect how you feel, how you behave and your decision-making, and that’s a big deal. So, I just want to do my part in helping society to make [healthier] food choices more accessible.”
GLOBAL PUSH
In the mid-to-late 2010s, the acai berry became the centre of a global push to healthier eating. The native South-American berry is touted to have a myriad of benefits, promoting both internal health, as well as your physical appearance.
Wright was introduced to the berry in his surfing circles where its use in acai bowls is famous.
“A part of how acai got its popularity, too, was from the Brazilian surfers and Jiu-Jitsu fighters,” he shared. “A lot of coaches had put their athletes on that diet where they had acai every day just to make sure that they’re on the top of their game. In the northern and southern parts of Brazil, they do it differently, but everyone incorporates it into their food.”
Now, having pushed acai locally for the past five years, Wright says his aim is to infuse positivity into all that they provide.
“We actually teach our team how to put love intentionally into the food. We really want to build community and make sure that you feel good whenever you come around and feel good when you leave.”
Referring to the colourful and thoughtful design of the bowl he said, “The aesthetics of the bowl, that’s love and an energy that you’re putting into the food. A Rastaman did teach me one time that, whenever he’s creating food, he’s always smiling and just having positive thoughts. So that makes a difference. That makes all the difference. Energy is real and it transfers so we really want to have a feeling of ease with people whenever they come to our store.”
With their new location, though, Wright says he has hopes to expand their menu while maintaining their targeted offerings.
“I’ve been getting a beating from people left, right and centre saying ‘you need to offer chicken and food’. So I want to expand on the menu but not in a sense where we lose the essence of what we’re really about. For us, it’s really about our bowls, our smoothies. We’re gonna incorporate salads and wraps at some point and then we’ll have coffee. We also make our own oat milk and almond milk that we incorporate lavender in there and stuff. We’ll be doing juices and immune booster shots, and some really tough merch coming. So we have things coming.”