thirst juice wellesley belclare — Drink up, from Thirst Juice

Thirst Juice, the Downtown Crossing/Financial District juice bar opened by the lawyerly wife-and-husband team of Heather Stevenson and Christopher Roche in late 2014, is expanding its health-conscious business into Wellesley later this year at 53 Grove St., as part of the Belclare condo/retail development.

So yes, the $35M project that has been clogging up traffic for months will now be welcoming a business to unclog your innards with antioxidants and superfoods.

We’re pretty sure that the kale/escarole/carrot/ginger etc., juice and smoothie concoctions from Thirst Juice aren’t the sorts of things that would have been found at the old Wellesley Inn formerly on this site. In addition to juices and smoothies, Thirst Juice offers soups, oatmeal and acai bowls. You can expect a broader range of products in the Wellesley space.

Naturally, the offerings are all vegan, raw and gluten free.

Prices range from $6.95 for small (12 oz) juices to $8.50 for large (16 oz) ones. Smoothies (20 oz) are $8.65, though a smaller size might be available in Wellesley. Acai bowls are $9.50 and cold-pressed juice starts at $8.95 for a 16 oz. bottle. Food starts at $1.50 for Superfood Bites, and quinoa and noodle bowls are in the $7-$9 price range.

Foodies who have visited the Boston shop rave about it. And Thirst Juice assures customers that “It doesn’t have to taste like grass, just because it’s green.”

Thirst Juice’s Stevenson says Wellesley is a perfect spot for their products “with Wellesley’s health focused community, large number of residents who care about eating well, and high concentration of busy families who need quick and delicious nutrition on the go.”

Wellesley also feels right for Stevenson, who grew up in Lincoln and attended Winsor in Boston — she had many friends who lived in Wellesley and spent a lot of time here at friends’ houses and playing sports at Dana Hall.

“My friends and I REALLY loved Truly Yogurt growing up and spent many summer evenings eating yogurt and hanging out on their benches. Thirst found its second location after I joked to a regular customer (not knowing that the Belclare development had available retail space) that my dream location would be next to Truly in Wellesley. It turns out that the customer is from Wellesley and is friends with the Belclare developer. He put us in touch, and it went from there.”

Educated as a lawyer, Stevenson has thrown herself into the juice business over the past year-plus. She completed a certificate in plan-based nutrition taught by Dr. T. Colin Campbell through eCornell, as well as taken Brendan Brazier and Matthew Kenney’s plant-based nutrition for athletes course.

As anyone who has been by the Belclare development of late can see, the building is coming along. One other retailer that’s been named as an occupant is specialty clothier David Chase, which will have two boutiques at the location.

Belclare project developer Jordan Warshaw says “we’re closing in on the finish line….we’ll be done and people will be moving in within a month or so!”

(Thanks to Swellesley reader TF for the tip)