Meet Phelipe Davila | Founder

We had the good fortune of connecting with Phelipe Davila and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Phelipe, can you walk us through the thought-process of starting your business?
Living in L.A, one has to generate at least two income streams to meet the cost of living. My career, my 9 to 5 job, was Whole Foods Market. Whole Foods took care of me financially for the most part, but I always had a part time job throughout 13 years I worked there. During these times a friend of mine worked the local farmers markets. He would generate upwards of $700 a day, this sounded to good to be true. Money was the driving factor for me to look into building a business at that time, especially if it only involved 1 or 2 days out of my week. Juicing had recently changed my life, I was in love with it. I grew up not eating vegetables, not knowing what organic meant, or even knowing what a “healthy lifestyle” was. For this reason I went down the Juicing rabbit hole, trying to figure out how could I setup a Juice Bar at a farmers market. Funny enough, this process took years to even put together. I wanted my own business, but no one tells you the extensive amount of requirements it takes to make it come to fruition. I had no idea where to start. The farmers market application did have a checklist that guided me. Permits, licenses, supplies, vendors, insurance, bank accounts, taxes, capital, all these requirements took time to complete. By the time I put everything together, COVID, made its introduction to this world. No more farmers market for anyone, period. As an “essential worker” for Whole Foods, I never quarantined, and I still had to deal with all the panic shoppers coming into the store daily. Social distancing in my opinion never worked for the grocery store employees. To keep me from contracting the virus and to boost my immune system, I began Juicing. I documented the process on Snapchat. I would create juice cleanses to keep me from gaining weight as well. This led to a friend of mine reaching out for a cleanse after he had gone through a personal health scare. He asked how much, I did not know what to say, he then asked for my Venmo, minutes later I had my first deposit, $100. That was the beginning of PHresh Juice Bar as we know it now.

Can you give our readers an introduction to your business? Maybe you can share a bit about what you do and what sets you apart from others?
A pandemic born business going into its 5th year serving the Los Angeles, West Adams, and Inglewood communities. Covid made us who we are now. In times of uncertainty, the community turned to fruits and vegetables to improve their overall health. Social distancing had us delivering juice around the clock to your doorstep. As the demand grew, the regular home juicers could not keep up. It was time to invest into a world leading commercial juicer, the Goodnature X1-Mini. The X-1 Mini is engineered with one purpose in mind – be the heart of a successful juice bar, juice delivery, or bottled juice business. This machine immediately took us to the next level, its what sets us apart from others. Along with our cleanses, customer recipes, and being organic. Juicing was a side hustle, it was never intended to be my full time job. But life as we know it, tends to throw curb balls at you. Eventually I cashed out my 401k, signed a lease Dec 2023, and now in process of building a brick and mortar shop. There is no easy roads, no short cuts, no fast success stories here, I’m still grinding it out day in and day out. Its almost one year since signing the lease and construction has not begun. Floor plan approvals, permits, modifications, architects, contractors, capital, all these things take time. But in the process something beautiful and unexpected happened. PHresh Juice Bar gave birth to a run club, “Run West Adams”. The first West Adams District run club who meets Mondays and Wednesdays at PHresh Juice Bar to go running around the city. This past October over 20 members ran in The Long Beach Full/Half Marathon. We’ve even come together on multiple occasions for community street clean up days. There might not be a juice bar operating out of our location yet, but there is a community growing, making more health conscious choices every day.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
If you’re coming into LA, we are going to the beach first. That can be early in the morning, afternoon, or at night. Local to me is Venice Beach. Either for a long walk up and down the boardwalk, a swim, a skate sesh, a drum circle, a bike ride, a run, or food. Venice is a one stop shop. Its also the place where I learned the juice bar business. I spent years at Muscle Beach Juice Bar. You can spend a whole week in Venice and everyday it would be a different adventure. If you’re a thrill seekers we have the amusement parks, Magic Mountain would be my top choice. To highlight a local business, I would take you to eat at Olympian Burgers off 27st and Vermont. A pollo plate “charbroiled chicken” is my favorite. Attending a local sports game would definitely make the itinerary. USC, Dodgers, Lakers, or Kings game for sure. But if you just want to mingle with the locals, just come run with us. On any night you can find over 50 other people to talk to.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
If I go down the list, it would be too many names to get all specific. I don’t want to leave anyone out, so ill keep it as general as I can. 2020 was a crazy year, wild times. I had 3 people in my team who helped my establish the business. They helped me prep, juice, clean, setup at popups, deliver, all carry out all the logistics behind the scenes. They were there throughout the entire process. Then you have my biggest supporters, my friends, and family. There is no way I get PHresh Juice Bar going without their input, financial support, motivation, reassurance, and love. Times have changed now, its been 4 years since then. Now making the transition from street vendor to brick and mortar I have to give some credit to Psychedelics Anonymous (PA), a web3 brand and digital collectable project (NFT). The PA community is a group consisting of holders dedicated to the advancement of psychedelic research, knowledge sharing, and mental health awareness. My healing journey began 1 year and 6 months ago. I would not be in this position if I don’t learn about trauma and my mental health. Healing has changed everything about me and PHresh Juice Bar. The two books I credit with understanding trauma are “Cant Hurt Me” by David Goggins and “The Body Keeps the Score” by Bessel van der Kolk.

Website: https://phreshjuicebarla.com

Instagram: phreshjuicebar and runwestadams

Linkedin: Phelipe Davila

Image Credits
Mobious 1ne -Photographer and PHelipe