Fawaky Burst offers smoothies, healthy food at new Cleveland Heights location - cleveland.com

CLEVELAND HEIGHTS, Ohio -- When Muhammad Edwards moved to Greater Cleveland in 2011, his goal was to develop a business featuring healthy food that tastes good.

Edwards believes he has accomplished that goal with Fawaky Burst Smoothie and Juice Café. A new Fawaky Burst location opened in January at 3077 Mayfield Road.

“When I was coming up, health food was like eating grass and not-so-good-tasting food,” he said. “Here, we take the same healthy food and just prepare it with fruits and veggies that make good blends and mixtures.

“That’s why we wanted to do a juice bar, and that’s what makes us unique from every other juice bar around.”

A native of Newark, N.J., who attended college in Miami, Edwards said he was used to seeing juice bars “like on every corner” in those cities.

“So when I moved here to Cleveland, I was in search of a healthy option, and there weren’t a lot of healthy options around,” he said. “I thought I was filling a need.”

The new Fawaky Burst, which opened with a soft launch Jan. 7, is located next to Motorcars Collision Center, at Mayfield Road and Monticello Boulevard. It’s in the space formerly occupied by Daylight Donuts and Coffee, which closed last June after more than a year in business.

“This space was newly built, and everything here was brand new,” Edwards said. “It’s also a drive-thru.”

Edwards also owns the Fawaky Burst location at 4442 Mayfield Road in South Euclid. He said that eatery is plant based, while the new store in Cleveland Heights serves “café-style food.”

“This Fawaky Burst is like a transition restaurant,” he said. “It’s aimed toward people who want to make better food choices. You can get chicken and other animal products here; we just do it with a healthier twist.

“This is also our first and only location where we’re doing coffee.”

Preparing a smoothie — Rayhanah Ali, left, a crew member at Fawaky Burst Smoothie and Juice Café, prepares a smoothie in the café as store manager Dymond Sudberry expresses her approval. (Ed Wittenberg, special to cleveland.com)

At Fawaky Burst, smoothies are made with real fruit, homemade juices and ice, Edwards noted. The word “fawaky” is Arabic for fruit.

“We don’t use any artificial preservatives,” he said. “Everything is all natural.”

James Lyons, Edwards’ business partner at the new location, said Fawaky Burst offers “some very unique items.”

“To name a few, there are ginger shots, tumeric shots, lemon and lime shots, alkaline water and fresh-squeezed orange juice,” Lyons said. “Those are things that you have to go to a place like Whole Foods for, and Whole Foods may not even have some of them.”

Edwards launched Fawaky Burst in 2014, selling cold-pressed juice out of a truck and running a food truck. His first store opened in 2015 at Summit Mall in Fairlawn, but that has since closed. The South Euclid site opened in 2016.

Two previous attempts to open a Fawaky Burst in Cleveland Heights didn’t pan out for Edwards. A proposed joint effort with chef Eric Rogers, owner of Black Box Fix restaurant and The Sweet Fix bakery, on Lee Road fell through in 2017, and a location in the Cedar-Fairmount district was open for most of 2018 before closing.

“We didn’t get a lot of foot traffic there, and parking wasn’t so good for us,” Edwards said.

Dymond Sudberry, manager at the new location, said she’s “trying to create a culture” that’s inclusive and “giving the best service to everyone.”

“Cleveland Heights is a very coffee-based community, and there’s not really that much variety in that,” said Sudberry, a Cleveland Heights resident. “So this really gives the customer a good opportunity to enjoy something that’s not only healthy for them, but also a sweet treat.

“This is a more independent place where you can come here, it feels a little bit homey and you can enjoy a fruit smoothie and other healthy alternatives, like dairy-free milk and fresh vegetables," she said.

Sudberry said the King Hawaiian smoothie is her favorite menu item. It’s a mixture of fresh strawberries, pineapple, peach and mango chunks with a strawberry juice base.

The fresh-pressed juices are also “a big bonus,” she added.

Samples of smoothies are available for tasting, Lyons noted.

“The Fawaky toddy has been good for us,” Lyons said of the hot drink that features a blend of green and peppermint tea mixed with lemon juice and honey.

Fawaky Burst storefront — The new Fawaky Burst Smoothie and Juice Café opened in January at 3077 Mayfield Road in Cleveland Heights. (Ed Wittenberg, special to cleveland.com)

Fawaky Burst is open from 6 a.m. to 7 p.m. every day, but it’s been busiest during the lunch hours so far, Edwards said. Breakfast is served from 6 to 11 a.m., and sandwiches, wraps, salads and rice bowls are available from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m.

“We have a nice 11-to-2 crowd,” he said. “We would like to introduce our breakfast menu, (which includes) avocado toast.

“We’re known for our smoothies, but we also have good food here. A lot of people do not know we’re here yet.”

Lyons said he hopes the café will eventually become a popular meeting place in the community. The seating capacity is about 40.

“We plan to do some special things here,” he said. “We have a Cleveland Heights wall (a yellow wall in a corner), where we want to highlight people from the area who may have done some things of note.”

Edwards said he plans to open a third Fawaky Burst site in Beachwood, in the plaza on Richmond Road near Chagrin Boulevard, in late February.

Fawaky Burst offers delivery service through Grubhub, DoorDash and ChowNow.

For more information, call the café at 216-862-9053.

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