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Richmond native Brandi Brown, owner of Ms. Bee's Juice Bar (Photo by Eileen Mellon)
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The mural inside Ms. Bee's showcases echinacea flowers, a healing botanical, along with butterflies and bees. (Photo by Eileen Mellon)
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Shayola Harrison of wellness catering and counseling service Holistic Alaye oversees the vegan side of the menu. (Photo by Eileen Mellon)
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"Karat tuna," Harrison's specialty, is a vegan tuna salad made with carrots, veganaise, red onion, red pepper, cilantro, parsley, celery, herbs and sea vegetables. (Photo by Eileen Mellon)
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Brown’s mother, real estate agent and entrepreneur Leigh Battle, serves as general manager at Ms. Bee’s. (Photo courtesy Ms. Bee’s Juice Bar)
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Inside Ms. Bee's Juice Bar (Photo by Eileen Mellon)
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The juice- and smoothie-making area inside Ms. Bee's (Photo by Eileen Mellon)
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The menu at Ms. Bee's features smoothies, cold-pressed juices, sandwiches, soups and salads. (Photo by Eileen Mellon)
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Brown says she wanted to create a warm and welcoming space inside Ms. Bee's where people could meet and hang out. (Photo by Eileen Mellon)
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Photo by Eileen Mellon
For the past two and a half years, Brandi Brown has been building her "congregation," a faithful following formed at barber shops, yoga studios and gyms throughout the city — over cold-pressed juices.
When the 41-year-old Richmond native took her homemade juicing operation mobile with community pop-ups a couple of years ago, people responded.
“Everybody started liking my juice,” Brown says with a smile. The former real estate agent had followed in the footsteps of her mother, successful real estate agent and entrepreneur Leigh Battle, but Brown says she found her true calling by focusing on wellness.
What began as a dream on a vision board has blossomed into a fruitful reality: On Saturday, Jan. 25, Ms. Bee’s Juice Bar opened at 114 Brookland Park Blvd.
Following the birth of her last child, Brown turned to a healthier and more holistic lifestyle. Struggling with high blood pressure, borderline diabetes and obesity and equally concerned about the health of her teenage son, she began searching for solutions. Her mother introduced her to to Alice Freeman, founder of Healthy Heart Plus, a Richmond-based wellness center focused on nutritional services and holistic remedies that opened in 1997. Brown began attending classes and meeting with Freeman, and she was hooked.
“Brandi had a passion about wellness and would ask questions, and I would answer; it moved into a holistic relationship,” says Freeman, who calls herself Brown’s spiritual surrogate.
Brown quit smoking cigarettes, began reading food labels and choosing produce over processed foods, and switched to a pescatarian and then vegan diet. Not only did she begin to feel better, so did her children.
But for Brown, her wellness journey seemed meaningless if it wasn’t shared with others. Her goals were to promote food as medicine and a key player in mental health, offer healthy options in a neighborhood considered a food desert, and empower individuals through her mantra, “Health is wealth.”
“I want to help educate my community on eating right. [We] as minorities, … it’s not [that] we don’t want to eat right, it's about knowing how,” she says. “I want to educate my community on living a better and healthier lifestyle.”
Brown began searching for a space for her forthcoming business, with her eye on one area in particular.
“I said, ‘I want a juice bar, and I want it right here,’ ” she says of the Brookland Park area. She felt a connection to the neighborhood — her grandmother lived on First Avenue, and her husband is from North Side — and also saw the potential there.
“It worked out perfect; this is where I’m meant to be,” she says.
Freeman says she feels privileged to see Brown in this moment that feels like a consecration, and to have witnessed Brown's evolution.
“She is in that neighborhood because it is truly a traditional urban neighborhood, and she can raise the level of consciousness. She speaks the melodic language the people there understand,” Freeman says. “I believe that's where she is called to do the work, and she is prepared to do the work."
Inside Ms. Bee’s, a warm, lemon-colored wall pops with bright pink-purple echinacea flowers, butterflies and bees, the mural completed by local artist Jason Ford of Nosaj Authentics.
The name Ms. Bee’s is not only a nod to Brown’s childhood nickname, but also an homage to the buzzing pollinators: “Without bees we can’t live; they pollinate the fruits and flowers,” says Brown, who shares that she is also excited to have her mother serve as the juice bar's general manager.
On the menu at Ms. Bee’s, guests can find smoothies and cold-pressed juices as well as soups, salads and sandwiches, with vegan and vegetarian options available.
Names for the raw juices — such as the “Brookland Park Energizer,” made with beets, apple, Swiss chard, ginger and lemon — pay respect to the neighborhood. Other options include “The Gold Post Glow” and the “Ebony Island Hangover,” which reference bygone clubs in the North Side neighborhood, and the “Hotchkiss Hot Shot,” named for the field and community center nearby.
Brown demonstrates a deep understanding of wellness and natural remedies as she enthusiastically guides me through the array of smoothie and juice add-ons Ms. Bee's offers: spirulina, maca root, hemp seed, sea moss and soursop, along with turmeric, ginger and wheat grass shots. She also offers detox programs, and in the future she plans to bottle alkaline water.
The vegan/plant-based side of the food menu is spearheaded by Shayola Harrison, founder of Holistic Alaye, a wellness catering and counseling service, while Jamil Pearson is behind other creations such as the chicken and tuna salads.
Harrison and Brown met at Ellwood Thompson’s and, after striking up a conversation, realized they shared a similar vision.
“This is her baby, and I’m just helping in the delivery process,” says Harrison, who plans to create daily specials. “We want to get [the community] interested in their health, and this is the movement — I am all in and believe in it,” she adds, noting that her specialty is the “Karat Tuna,” a vegan, carrot-rich spin on a tuna salad sandwich.
Brown says that when she opened the doors on the first day, the line spilled onto the sidewalk, and the response to Ms. Bee's continues to be positive.
“There’s certain people that Brandi can reach that the average person can’t,” Freeman says. “She has that charisma. She’s a young black woman, an entrepreneur and also a Realtor. This [business opening] is an epic moment in the African American community, particularly in that corridor.”
Ms. Bee’s Juice Bar is open Monday through Friday from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m., Saturday 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. and closed on Sunday.
