Healthies

New Indy Smoothie Shop Aims to Make Healthy Look Attractive

Photography provided

For Healthies, a new smoothie and juice bar in Indy, its mission was to make healthy look attractive.

“The mission is definitely to get better nutrition to people more conveniently,” says Garrett Dewald, owner of Healthies-Indianapolis. “Stuff that isn’t just good for you but tastes good so that it’s attractive and people want to have it — they look forward to having it. So, I’m getting people away from fast-food and I’m getting them away from skipping meals and all those other things with our product.”

Dewald opened Healthies in June 2019 with his fiancée, Abby Amaro. The two independently own the bar. As for how it got its unique name, Dewald says, “The name came from just the idea of what people are going to see when they look at the sign. It says healthy, but that’s going to gravitate and the -ies, the healthies, that sounded cute. The drinks themselves, I guess you could call those the ‘healthies.’”

Its menu features a wide variety of salty and sweet healthy shakes and energizing teas. Everything is 300 calories or less, with just 10g of sugar,17g-24g of protein, and 15g of carbs. It also has dairy-free and vegan options. While still keeping its calories low, its smoothies are meant to be enjoyed as meal replacements.

“We use a meal replacement and we’ll add fruit as needed and a couple of other things for different flavors,” Dewald says. “The idea is that instead of just yogurt and fruit and other things, we’re able to keep the calories and the sugar very low by doing the meal replacement powder and water.”

Smoothie flavors include Cinnamon Toast Crunch, No-Bake Cookie, Blueberry Cheesecake, Orange Dream, Almond Joy, Salted Carmel Mocha, and Turtle Cheesecake — just to name a few. Healthies aims to keep the calories, sugar and carbs low, while still including a lot of vitamins, fiber and protein.

As for its tea, it’s purpose is to boost metabolism and give you energy because it’s a thermogenic tea. Its tea flavors include raspberry lemonade, sour punch, acai berry and passion fruit.

“We make the tea sweetened with Stevia and it tastes really good so that people that don’t like tea can get the benefit of it because it tastes like juice,” Dewald says.

Since Healthies opened in June, Dewald says they’ve received nothing but positive feedback.

“Everybody pretty much says that our side of town really needed something like this and that now is a good time for it,” Dewald says. “We’re getting a lot of good feedback as far as the atmosphere goes as well. It’s a very positive, high-energy place. We kind of have a mission to make your day better as opposed to just serve you and get a transaction. We’re really trying to make a difference. People are saying that it’s working.”   

Dewald specifically chose his current Geist location because of its vibe and how he could make it feel like his own home for customers.

“Indianapolis as a whole, I’ve been wanting to come here for a few years now. I’m actually from South Bend, Indiana, originally,” he says. “Now why did we pick specifically the east side where we’re at, pretty much it has just a little more of the vibe that I personally relate with. We liked to pick our location and make it look and feel like our own home.”

Dewald says that Healthies is extremely different than other smoothie places in town. Most notable is its policy of not having extra charges.

“We have high vitamins, minerals, fiber and high protein count. So, we do all of that and none of that is an extra charge,” he says. “It’s almost like you’re having a dessert that helps you lose weight.”

If you’re interested in trying some of its smoothies or teas, Healthies-Indianapolis is located at 11915 Pendleton Pike. It’s open 7 a.m. – 7 p.m. Monday – Friday, and from 8 a.m. – 3 p.m. on Saturday and 10 a.m. – 3 p.m. on Sunday. For more information about their healthy smoothies and energizing teas, you can visit them online at healthies-indy.com or call 574-309-0889.