Revitalive Cafe & Juice Bar
With my back against a brick accent wall, I take a gander at raw wooden tables, mismatched chairs, strategically placed greenery, flooding natural light, and one of those trendy, changeable letter boards. Am I in some Australian influencer’s kitchen? No, silly! I’m in Revitalive cafe, on the Massachusetts North Shore!
Specializing in organic smoothies and cold-pressed juice, Revitalive also offers soups, salads, grain bowls, acai bowls, vegan chocolates and other goodies. You can order ahead if you’re on the go, but otherwise it’s counter service and they call your name when your order is up.
The staff was friendly, and they let me know that even though only some items were marked with a Ⓥ, everything on the menu was vegan (weird, I know, the woman taking my order agreed with me that it’s confusing but she was like, “we just added a Ⓥ to the ones people asked about the most.”) Everything is also gluten-free.
I briefly want to mention that Revitalive sells “raw food and juice cleanses,” and that I choose not to promote any sort of “cleanse” as I believe (per science) that our bodies naturally cleanse themselves. We have our liver and kidneys for a reason, and here is a link to the US National Institute of Health stating:
There isn’t any convincing evidence that detox or cleansing programs actually remove toxins from your body or improve your health.
Additionally, here is an article published by Harvard Medical School that addresses juicing and cleansing, but I digress.
My friend and I ordered the Chili Avocado Bowl and the Save the Tuna Melt Sandwich.
RATING SYSTEM
★★★★★ - Would order every time. Absolutely recommend.
★★★★☆ - Would order regularly. Highly recommend.
★★★☆☆ - Would order again. Would recommend.
★★☆☆☆ - Would order if I had no other option. Would not recommend.
★☆☆☆☆ - Would never order again. Never recommend.
1. Chili Avocado Bowl - ★★★★☆ - Our signature house-made three bean chili served over brown rice with avocado, lightly steamed red pepper, kale crumbles and our tangy red-pepper Mexi-sauce
The Chili Avocado Bowl was served warm. It was flavorful and filling, and seriously who knew that chili could be aesthetic? The dish didn’t have too much of a kick, which I appreciated. It was really nice to be able to have substantial, nourishing meal that didn’t leave you feeling heavy afterwards.
2. Save the Tuna Melt Sandwich - ★★★★☆ - Our delicious GF sourdough with our coconut smoked gouda cheese or pepper jack toasted with avocado, spinach and our vegan herbed aioli.
First let me note that no part of the sandwich tasted like coconut, so don’t let that scare you off if you tend to ebb away from coconut flavors, like me. Second let me note that gluten-free bread gets a bad rap, and I think that it’s poor reputation is misguided. To be honest, I didn’t know the sourdough was gluten free until I looked up the description while writing this and in the end I actually feel bad I didn’t offer my friend a taste of this sandwich because I inhaled the whole thing.
I’ll be sure to add on to this review once I’ve tried more of Revitalive’s menu items -- because I WILL be back! I plan on trying some smoothies, juices, coffee, chocolates, and other meals in the future.
