JuiceRx - Local Love

JuiceRx - Local Love

The road to healthy can be long, tumultuous and frustrating, but it doesn't have to taste bad! JuiceRx, a local juice cleanse brand, shared some of their awesome juice concoctions with me to try this month. I will be the first to say that the idea of a magical juice cleanses helping you drop the pounds and inches in a week is a bunch of baloney. BUT, a brand that is meant to help you kick start your health, get you the nutrients you need and detoxify your body of the bad stuff is what JuiceRx is all about.

There is a lot of controversy about the so-called detox diets, especially due to the fact that many are not sustainable. Of course you will lose weight if you are not eating and only sustaining yourself on liquids. Yet, once you begin eating "normal" again the chances of you gaining are much higher. There is also some research that shows that you are slowing down your metabolism when you are on a prolonged cleanse. Yet, there are also some positives that relate to juice cleanses, especially when done under the supervision of your doctor and to help supplement your health rather than just as a crash diet.

Juice Cleanses are known to help those suffering from inflammatory diseases, allergies, chronic pain, autoimmune diseases or bloating. They are a great way to flush out the bad and help kick those sweet cravings. Yet, it's important to note that the juices are not just some magical elixir that automatically flush your body. It takes time and it is so important to drink a lot of water while on a cleanse in order to flush your body properly. The JuiceRX options are a switch up from your typical store bought juices and a much easier way to "juice" in general. As an at-home juicer, I know from experience the amount of time, produce necessary to make one serving of juice and the expenses that can come along with it. Let's just say it's a lot! It's worth it, but it can be a bit much for the non-experienced juicer.

These cleanses, raw foods and elixirs aren’t about fad, or fashion. They’re about high quality nutrition that encourages healing and youthful vigor to improve quality of life today, tomorrow, and well into the future. Unlike many cleanses and health foods, the JuiceRX flavors delight even the pickiest palate. I had the opportunity to try out the "Regular" one day cleanse that had a variety of green juices, fruit based juices and the amazing horchata juice. The juice I make at home tends to be a bit thick, but in comparison the JuiceRX juices were fine, easy to drink and pulp free. Which means your body absorbs it in less than 15 minutes. They use a specialty juicer that applies 5,000 pounds of pressure to fresh, organic fruits and vegetables to extract (that's what all that cold-press stuff means) their juices. This means you get the maximum vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, enzymes and phytonutrients in every serving. Dean, the founder states that this press delivers 3 to 5 times more nutrition than any other juicing technique, with over 50 lbs of fruits and vegetable nutrients delivered in a 3 day cleanse! Who eats 50 lbs of fruits and veggies ever?

Did I mention how good they tasted? Seriously, this Mexirican was all about that horchata. I almost felt like I was cheating drinking it because it tasted like my favorite drink from my favorite hole in the wall taco place. JuiceRX has taken this Mexican classic and turned it into something that not only tastes amazing, but has managed to make it really good for you, too! They mixed up organic cashews, added a hearty dose of copper, which is known to support bone health and protects against free radicals and of course included cinnamon, which is also known for its cholesterol lowering and blood sugar regulating properties. So good!!

So, besides letting me try out their juices, the JuiceRX founder - Dean Kasal  - sat down with me to share his story. It's always amazing to me how entrepreneurs get their start and Dean, just like many others I've spoken with, started his business out of a personal journey. After years in the corporate grind, Dean was stressed and unhealthy. Facing a constant battle with Ulcerative Colitis and a life of prescriptions that ended up hurting him more than helping him, he was afraid of the life in store for him. After less than a year of popping prescription pills that promised to keep the disease at bay, blood tests revealed elevated liver enzyme levels indicating serious liver damage had occurred. As it turns out, this damage was caused by the pills that were intended to restore health. For someone as young as Dean was at the time, this news was mind blowing.

It was the wake up call he needed to make some life altering decisions to get himself back on the path to health. In 2009, in an attempt to find a natural and holistic way of healing, Dean began juicing. A year later he found himself completely cured of a disease that he was told was incurable. All because of his journey with juicing. He realized to feel better he had to do better for his body and that started by changing what he put into it. This led him to launching what is now JuiceRX. He wanted to share his journey and new found health with the world.

Now, nearly 5 years later, Dean has grown his local business in an amazing way. Now offering shipping nationwide and a new line of Raw Foods, he is set to continue to take on the health industry by storm. The FoodRX addition is a great take on the mail order food system. There are not many companies that offer both food and juice options. Typically, it is one or the other, but Dean saw a need and decided to give his customers what they were looking for: a raw food line that tastes good and is good for you. All meals are made fresh for you the day they are delivered. For best taste and maximum nutrition, enjoy within 6 days of delivery (not including delivery day for local deliveries). My favorite is the Southwestern Chili. Filling, spicy and best with the cashew sour cream! If you haven't checked out JuiceRx - do so today and give them a try, you won't regret it!

Where's Jimmy?!

Where's Jimmy?!

Written by: Thom Olson as featured in Halfstack's Fall Issue. Read the entire issue today HERE.

It’s Sunday afternoon and you are at Oak Street Beach. A beautiful blonde comes up and asks you “Where’s Jimmy?” and proceeds to hand you a light blue package. The color is somewhat similar to Tiffany’s iconic little gift boxes. Alas… Tiffany’s is not giving away free samples... though one can still hope.  It is, however, a small sample of a fruit bar. It’s marked vegan. Some might find that word marked on the package a little scary. You either try it or throw it in your travel tote for later. 

Later you happen to be on a mud run. Could it be that running in this madness is the result of a three-martini evening where you placed a bet and lost? Thus… you are running through an obstacle course doused in soggy wet dirt. Or, is this something you volunteered for because you find it “pleasant”? Anyhow, low and behold, you see that same blonde, who hands you another taste of something wrapped in the same blue wrapper.  Exhausted and hungry, you decide to give it a try.  You eat it. OMG, you actually like it.  You ask for another and get a taste of a second flavor. You wolf it down and are on your way. Did you just have your first vegan experience?

After a shower and cozying up with a very large bar of soap, you hop on down to the Whole Foods Grocery store to get something for dinner. Who do you run in to? Yup, you guessed it. Blondie hands you a sample but this time you ask for a couple of the real deal and buy them. You have just bought a Jimmy Bar.

Jimmy Bars are a fruit-based snack bar. Each bar has all natural ingredients. In a rare twist of food packaging, all the ingredients are featured prominently on the front of the package and not in micro type buried on the back. There isn’t anything listed that leaves a question mark in your mind like Maltodextrin, high fructose corn syrup or some hydrogenated goo.  You can actually pronounce all the ingredients and see there is a shelf life on the package. It’s not like a Twinkie.  Yes, it is vegan, but that is less scary now. There isn’t a dairy component added to the product nor are there any lactose bi-products added. It is gluten free — not a lot of foods can say that, particularly in the snack bar category.  The funny thing is, though, it actually tastes good without any sugar added. The base of the bar is dates. There are 4 varieties: Chocolate Chip, Banana Muffin, Peanut Butter and Apple. With all that said why are you still intrigued? It was blonde right? Or was it the food? So, you start to do some investigating, as you need an answer to the question.

Who is the blonde?
You might have run into one of the two that man the helm of this healthy snack food ship. The very athletically handsome: Jimmy Simon, Co-Founder of Jimmy Bars OR his lovely niece Ciarra. Ciarra is the extremely cute, collegiate daughter of the other Co-Founder Annette Del Prete. The pieces start to fall in to place as you recognize it. Annette is one of the owners of Fillippo’s Restaurant in Lincoln Park. You probably have been going there for many years either before or after a movie. It’s a staple destination over on Clybourn St. It is kiddy corner from Webster Place Theater.

You recognize the blonde, as you have seen her many times at Fillippo’s, waiting on you. Both businesses are a family thing. This new nutrition bar sprang into existence out of the same kitchen as your homemade pasta dinner. It stands to reason and it is no wonder why it would taste good. The restaurant has been around for over 20 years making your favorite Chicken Valdostana. The restaurant was in the neighborhood before it was a neighborhood. They make their own pasta in house and after a plate of it I asked Annette, “What’s the story?”

A word about Annette… and full disclose here. We go way back. I was a waiter in the first restaurant she managed when she got out of college. Her name was Annette Simon. That’s how we first met. A few years later, I ran into her at Fillippo’s where she was engaged to Fillippo Del Prete. They have since got married and had two kids. Annette is very smart. She knows food and is fierce in business. She is also a serial entrepreneur. She has had four businesses including: the restaurant, a Mexican fast food shop, a wholesale bakery and now Jimmy Bars. Jimmy Simon is her brother and very much like her. He is also a serial entrepreneur. He has had six businesses including a very successful IT development company, an art gallery, a commercial realty business and two paper companies.  He chuckles at doing the same business twice but he said it was fun.

He has lived on both coasts and a couple spots in between before coming back to Chicago to do take on this new venture. They both readily admit to their dad having a lot to do with their self-made state of mind. He was a commodities trader but also an entrepreneur.  He instilled in them the mindset to blaze their own paths. He said there is no pension plan option; one has to build it on-their-own in order to ensure their future. Jimmy (who is very active and very healthy) asked Annette to join him in a new business venture. This time, though,  it would be a retail food item that would leverage her expertise. Her epicurean results are what is currently being sold in over 30 states and Canada. Jimmy Bars are also beginning to ship to the UK and Australia.  It has been a very meteoric rise. They started selling bars just a year and a half ago.


You can read the full article in the Fall Issue of Halfstack Magazine - To read click HERE

Halfstack Fall Issue Sneak Peek: Blooming of Sararose

Halfstack Fall Issue Sneak Peek: Blooming of Sararose

Written by: Thom Olson as featured in Halfstack's Fall Issue
Visit Sarah Rose online: http://sararoseonoak.com

Chicago ranks as kind of an interesting spot in the history of fashion. It’s not exactly a style less backwater. Marshall Field was one of the first to make Paris couture and designer garments accessible to the masses. Charles James’s childhood roots are tied to Chicago. Halston was a student of the School of the Art Institute. True, Chicago doesn’t have a fashion week. Trust me, it’s a bummer, but it is no slouch either way.

So, who are the new names of Chicago fashion?  Yeah – Maria Pinto. That’s an easy guess as she has been around for some time and has popped back up after a Kickstarter investment. Boris Powell, who is a dishy and handsome designer and has been on the scene for about 8 years, also comes to mind. Yet, there is another person whose name keeps percolating to the top — Sara Rose Krenger. Her line Stixs and Roses fills a niche where only a few have tread, but many would like to be a part of.  She sits comfortably in a balance between fashion and anti-fashion. Her work is not “out there” or “conceptual”, nor is it “ground breaking”. She is not Comme Des Garcons’s Rei Kawakubo, Issey Miyake, Yohi Yamamoto or Vivienne Westwood.

Her work is more likely to connect with the every day consumer. Yet, it is important to note, that she is VERY similar to those aforementioned designers in their philosophy of social consciousness. She is breaking new ground from that sense; virtually trailblazing as many design companies are starting to forge the ground of sustainability. It is similar to anti-fashion in the sense that the wearer doesn’t care about fashion, as much as they have higher priorities in mind like the world and it’s environment. Her fashion priorities center around economy, function, usability and having a garment that is sustainably made without creating an impact that lasts forever on the environment.

The fashion industry works hard to make instant fashion a reality to get the consumer to buy more.  Sara Rose is a designer who is about buying less. Stores like Zara and H&M build clothing with the idea that the garment will be worn for a couple of seasons and then be discarded— planned obsolescence. Their shoppers want the latest trend and are those people who constantly are actively searching out the next trend. The instant fashion shopper looks to the designer to be constantly developing new ideas to fill the insatiable appetite for something new and to fill the void of what they don’t have. These stores turn over the merchandise quickly like finely turned machines. In the case of Zara, the concept to sales floor manufacturing cycle can take as little as three weeks where others take a year and a half.

The trend ideas get refined with sale information providing the background information on what the shoppers are looking for. A pair of cranberry red skinny jeans may change in color to a brighter fire engine red before they go into a softer coral red. The jeans may then morph into a raspberry red if the trends and social media seem to point in that direction. These tweaks of color change incrementally to match shopper profiles and are projected to increase sales. Much of how the store is merchandised is directed toward the market that goes for the impulse buy. If the buyer doesn’t buy, the garment is a flop and is put on clearance quickly so a new concept can be brought in to inspire a shopper to crank open their wallet.

Sustainable or long-range ideas
Sustainability is not a factor in the equation of fashion – or hasn’t been. Only lately it has been in forefront of company’s minds as the result of economy causing people to respond and rethink how they buy. As consumers tighten their wallets from the downturn, there is more thought put into the economy of the garment. These thoughts started to develop from the standpoint of the economy of fabric and cutting out multiple garments that waste less fabric. A typical factory may have 85% usage, but that translates into 15% waste. Some retailers demand 92% usage from the manufacturer as a means of controlling costs. The focus point comes to the fibers and materials of the garment itself. A great example of this is cotton: it is horrible on the environment as it sucks up water and requires enormous amounts of pesticides to produce the final product. Cotton accounts for roughly 24% of the world’s insecticide market and 11% of the sale of global pesticides. It can take up to 2,900 liters of water to product a T-shirt. 70% of all water used globally is in the form of irrigation. In 2008, 2,890 billion litres of water was used in Pakistan to grow the cotton needed just to make products sold by Ikea – equivalent to the volume of drinking water consumed in Sweden over 176 years. Unrecycled clothing amounts about 5% of landfills use with Americans throwing out approximately 70lbs per person.

Some companies are experimenting with recycled cotton. Much like recycled paper; cotton can be used in a variety of ways. Sometimes this is in the form of pre-consumer and other times, post-consumer waste. Yet, it is important to note that fashion still is about getting a consumer to buy. Sometimes the economics play into the idea of paying less to the manufacturer so profit margins are the same or keeping a garment within a certain price point enticing consumers to buy it. Not buying, however, is not in question.

Enter Sara Rose
Her clothing designs focus on a philosophy that starts with the ideals of need and function. Part stylist, part designer, part manufacturer and 100% entrepreneur make up the whole of Sarah Rose. Sara Rose clients are mindful about looking good and also cognizant about keeping a wardrobe that is practical, cost efficient and has longevity. They are, as she puts it, “similar to myself. They are professional women.  They are extremely busy and extremely stylish. They care less about trend and are more concerned about style. They want to do more with less. They are often times vegan or vegetarian by choice and a little bit quirky, much like myself. ”

True to herself, she has learned to do more with less. Her former store and workroom was over 2000 square feet with half devoted to manufacturing. It was located on the Northwest side of Chicago. It was a large space but as she puts it “not exactly convenient or easy to shop at. It wasn’t unusual to have my customers parking their Bentleys in the funeral parlor parking lot next door.”

Her new space on Oak Street – while there is no parking — is a much more tiny and affluent neighborhood. Across the street from Tom Ford and Carolina Herrera, her new location is half the size, but is an efficient and economical use of space. Where she used to show at New York fashion week and was on a fashion circuit train of churning out collection after collection, she now has changed that cycle as well. “My collections reflect the needs of my clients and I center around what they need. Their needs dictate what I put in a collection and also my timeline. When I have a have a majority of my clients having the same wardrobe challenges, it guides me to put in what is essential and I react to it. Now, I turn out about a collection and a half or two collections a year.”

For the full article, check back Wednesday Sept. 17, 2014 to read the complete story in Halfstack’s Fall 2014 Issue. You can download the latest copy of the magazine at: www.issuu.com/halfstackmag

Halfstack Fall Issue Sneak Peek: Zap Props

Halfstack Fall Issue Sneak Peek: Zap Props

Written by: Jennifer Lezan as featured in Halfstack's Fall Issue.

In an unassuming, yet creepy drive off of Loomis Place on the Southside of Chicago, a place where history meets progress, rises multiple post modern manufacturing buildings that have long since been abandoned or repurposed. One building in particular boasts a collection of trinkets, oddities and vintage Americana unlike anything that you will find in the area. Behind this hauntingly beautiful façade of crumbling brick and stone you will find workers packing and unpacking, historians, business people, creatives, designers and the curators of the past. These interesting and inquisitive people are the lifeline behind what Chicagoans know as Zap Props.

Zap Props is a prop and antique warehouse located in Bridgeport run by Bill Rawksi, Chicago’s own curator of vintage and the key holder of the beautifully mundane. Zap Props is 36,000 square foot warehouse hidden within the confines of walls that are likely as old as the props being stored within them. In order to understand the enormity of it, one must visit to truly understand it. It’s an eerie wonderland where creatives of all industries can get lost in time exploring the vast, never ending shelves filled with treasures of times past. 

Bill got his start in the amusement and coin operated machine business over 30 years ago. He was helping his father at the time that ran a route throughout the area and even back then, Bill had an innate business sense and intuition. He saw an opportunity to grow and decided to buy a gumball machine route. As time progressed, he became fascinated with the older machines and started collecting them. He was astounded to find that, as he continued to visit flea markets to search for machines, people were actually collecting restored machines. It was at this point that he stumbled upon the fact that people were becoming ever more intrigued with the “Americana” aesthetic.

Over time, his collection grew and he saw an opportunity to take his business in a different direction as the amusement and coin operated industry was starting to die off. He continued to grow his collection and focus on working the antique and prop market. There was a chance opportunity that started with a little film called “A League of their Own” that helped Zap Props become a well-known player in the industry. Bill found his niche, as there were not, and still are not many prop houses of the stature of Zap Props in the city of Chicago. His innate business sense also helped him create a name for himself. Today, some of his biggest business clients come from the restaurant industry throughout the US and abroad. He has even been showcased on shows such as American Pickers.

If there is one thing that Bill understands, it is that networking is an extremely important part of his business. But, no you’re not going to find this blue-collar and down to earth dude rubbing elbows and hobnobbing in some fancy setting. Rather, this gruff guy has his own special way of connecting with Film Directors, Stylists, Designers and locals. He is a “what you see is what you get” kind of guy and that’s what truly seems to have helped him succeed. He is nimble on his feet and can adjust with the ebb and flow of the ever-changing business he is in. Yet, he remains humble and grateful about the opportunities he has found. Having worked with the likes of companies such as Rossati’s, Aurelios and The Tilted Kilt, Bill still maintains a humble attitude that speaks volumes about his character.

For the full article, check back Wednesday Sept. 17, 2014 to read the complete story in Halfstack’s Fall 2014 Issue. You can download the latest copy of the magazine at: www.issuu.com/halfstackmag