Lululemon’s New Restaurant Aims to Fill You ‘Nutritionally and Emotionally’
Its extensive menu includes avocado toast, Beyond burgers, kale smoothies, chocolate-covered bacon and kombucha on tap. It’s a trend-lover’s paradise.
Anaiz777, Anaiz777
Trendy restaurants are one thing, but now there is a restaurant designed around a currently ubiquitous clothing trend: athleisure.
Lululemon, the ultrapopular maker of yoga pants, sports bras and other stretchy, sweat-wicking workout gear, has just opened a massive retail and athletic space, touted as "not just a store, but a playground for everyone wanting to get more out of life," in Chicago’s Lincoln Park neighborhood. In addition to two floors of merchandise, three studios offering classes in yoga, meditation and high-intensity workouts, locker rooms with showers and changing areas, and workout gear you can borrow for a class and return all sweaty, the new 20,000-square-foot flagship space also features a full-on restaurant. (Here’s a tour.)
Fuel, as the restaurant is called, is open for breakfast, lunch, dinner and the time in between and features a "delicious, nutritious" menu that is way more extensive than your average store café. A range of snacks includes things that sound healthy, such as apple and berry or fruit and nut oatmeal ($5), and others that sound decadent, like chocolate-covered bacon ($4) or a chocolate chunk caramel cookie ($6). There’s a full range of $10 toasts including, yes, avocado, but also one boasting beets and edible flowers. You’ll find breakfast bowls, power bowls, burgers and protein boxes to go, not to mention coffee, smoothies, bone broth, beer and wine, and kombucha on tap.
Hey, people get hungry – and thirsty -- after a workout.
"You can’t live a full life on an empty stomach," the menu contends. "Our fresh, seasonal menu is crafted to fill you— nutritionally and emotionally—so you have the fuel you need to get the most out of life."
Lululemon partnered with dietitian Mia Zarlengo to tweak the menu to make sure it had something to offering people on various diets – such as vegans and those who stick to gluten-free, paleo or keto diets, Eater reports.
Lululemon is not saying whether it plans to expand its restaurant concept beyond this Chicago flagship store, but the brand is definitely looking to dramatically increase sales of its gear – internationally and in the online and men’s sectors -- in the next four years. Why not aim to increase chocolate-covered bacon sales as well?
Photo: iStock
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