Agua Fresh sets opening date for downtown restaurant

July 16, 2019

Agua Fresh opens Friday afternoon in its new downtown location, which the founder hopes becomes a go-to spot for meetings over coffee and convenient lunches, an out-of-the-office working space and a place to unwind after the workday.

“I think people will like to spend time over here,” said Sinan Taskin, who started the smoothie and juice bar in The Empire Mall in the winter of 2017.

Agua Fresh’s second location is in a building at Ninth Street and Phillips Avenue in a space that’s subleased from neighboring Frontier Bank.

Taskin and managing partner Bilal Akalin did much of the remodeling work themselves. They turned the former Pappy’s the Original restaurant space into a sleek, European-looking space with a palette of white, gray and black, and light wood finishes.

One wall features the word “love,” with each letter filled with greenery.

“We want people to do photoshoots over there,” Taskin said.

He describes the menu, which is slightly different from the one at the mall, as healthy fast-casual food.

For breakfast, Agua Fresh will serve muffins, yogurt and acai bowls, smoothies, juice and coffee drinks. For lunch and dinner, the menu also will feature sandwiches, wraps, salads and soups.

“We’ll also have a grab-and-go section with salads and wraps,” Taskin said. “They can self-checkout at the machine.” The staff also will make bottled juices for that area.

“Everything is made with all-real ingredients, no sweeteners,” he said.

Eventually, Agua Fresh will serve beer and wine. Taskin envisions diners sitting outside on the patio on summer nights, enjoying a glass of wine with their food.

The restaurant will start with hours of 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. weekdays, noon to 10 p.m. Saturday and noon to 6 p.m. Sunday. It will open at 2 p.m. Friday.

When Pappy’s closed in 2017, it left the bank’s staff and workers at other businesses in the building without a convenient space to grab coffee on the way into work or lunch.

“It certainly is exciting to have someone in there again. I think people on this end of downtown are looking forward to it,” said Gary Popkes, a senior vice president at the bank.

“It should have a good menu for the downtown, something that complements it well.”

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Agua Fresh sets opening date for downtown restaurant

Agua Fresh opens Friday afternoon in its new downtown location, which the founder hopes becomes a go-to spot for meetings over coffee and convenient lunches, an out-of-the-office working space and a place to unwind after the workday.

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