New Smoothie Shop In Enfield Overcomes Multiple Obstacles

ENFIELD, CT — After several months of planning and preparation work, a specialty shop providing refreshing smoothies - appropriately named Smoothville - made its debut in the center of the Hazardville section of Enfield on March 12. It was a Thursday, co-owner Chris Magnuson said, "because we didn't want to open on Friday the 13th."

Despite no pre-publicity, the opening days went very well for Magnuson and co-owner Stacy Simons. "We had a great first weekend of people excited to see us," Magnuson said, while Simons added customers began posting raves about the shop on social media.

Suddenly, everything changed within a week, as the onset of the coronavirus pandemic effectively ground most businesses to a halt. Restrictions implemented by Gov. Ned Lamont made doing business even more difficult for small shop owners, particularly one open for just a few days as Smoothville.

Rather than throw in the towel, Magnuson and Simons opted to take the opportunity to assess their new business and make changes where appropriate.

"We made an awful lot of smoothies that first weekend, we had a lot of staff here, we were tripping over each other," Magnuson said. "The following week, everything started to change for us - shutdowns, people not going to work. We had hoped to get a lot of business out of the morning commute, and when school went back, we hoped to get a lot of business out of Eagle Hour at Enfield High School. We were also counting on youth soccer, Little League - we haven't hit any of that."

Despite the fact "things went sideways" on the couple's plan, they pushed beyond the negativity and frustration experienced by nearly everyone during the ongoing pandemic.

"Looking back on those months, it gave us a real good opportunity to clean up our act a bit," Magnuson said. "We relooked at how we were staffing labor, we relooked at our menus, we moved things around and got some different equipment in here. We learned a lot of hard lessons that first weekend, but we worked hard to learn from them."

At no point was the shop required to close completely, but restrictions were put into effect which altered the way it planned to conduct business.

"We did not have to completely close as long as we did curbside delivery," Simons said. "We limited ourselves to one customer inside at a time, but had a lot of curbside and a lot of online preordering."

The duo currently has procedures in place which include mandatory wearing of masks, sanitizer at both the point of sale and pickup stations, and a one-way traffic pattern which requires customers to enter the front door and leave out the back. They are also limiting themselves to five customers inside the 550 square foot shop at any given time.

Neither of the owners had been involved in the food and beverage industry prior to opening the shop. Magnuson held a corporate position in the electronic security field for many years, while Simons was operations manager at a cardiologist's office for six years, a spot she still holds part time.

The idea for the shop came following a stop at a roadside burger stand following her son's soccer tournament on Cape Cod.

"They had smoothies, and my son Christopher said it would be fun to have a smoothie truck," Simons recalled. "My daughter Kayla always wanted a sundae truck, so we kicked it around for a few months, and it eventually happened."

Magnuson added, "Part of the dialogue was, where are places like this around here? It was a 20 to 30 minute drive to get to one, so we started looking at places, and it came together when this site became available."

"This site" is a circa 1850 brick building on the southwest corner of Hazard Ave. and South Maple Street, which also contains Hazardville Wellness and a skin care company called Exfole. For many years, Tony's Barber Shop (currently next door under the name Tony's Salon Di Eredita) operated in the spot now occupied by Smoothville.

The small shop is designed as a "quick-serve take-and-go," as opposed to a dine-in facility. There are three tables inside for customers, plus a 60-game electronic table featuring retro favorites like Ms. Pac Man and Galaga. "It's only a quarter," Simons said.

The menu at Smoothville contains about 40 varieties of smoothies, plus Acai Bowls and Yonana Bowls. Simons said the top selling smoothie is Nuts About You, consisting of chocolate almond milk, banana, peanut butter, protein powder, honey and cinnamon. Running close behind is Peanut Butter Jelly, comprised of almond milk, mixed berries, protein powder and peanut butter.

Special smoothies are offered for various holidays, including a Cinco de Mayo concoction which went over quite well in early May. Summer offerings include s'mores and apple crisp.

"We have a good amount of repeat and regular customers, plus we're seeing new faces every day," Simons said. Much of the work is handled by the couple's children: Ben and Erica Magnuson, and Karissa, Kayla and Christopher Simons. An influx of new customers has prompted the owners to begin expanding their staff.

More information about Smoothville, including online ordering, may be found at www.smoothvillesmoothies.com.

Photos: Tim Jensen/Patch

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