Uncovering Front Street Vol:5

Rain City Juicery

Rain City is the first juicery in Vancouver to sell growlers (beer folk know what I’m talking about). I sat down with the boys of RCJ with some questions, check out the “juicy” details (pun intended).

Rain City Juicery master minds Gabe Savage (New Westian), Tylan Fraser (East Coaster) and Clayton Oates (also a New Westian) knew their idea to open a cold pressed juicery in New West was innovative and frankly unheard of. I for one had never heard the term ‘cold pressed’ and had to ask the boys for the low down:

Q: What the heck is cold pressed juice?!

Cold pressed is a method used for extracting the liquid from fruits and vegetables that uses as little heat and aggravation as possible in order to preserve the quality of the enzymes and nutrients. By using these low speed processors and hydraulic presses you get the best tasting juice with the highest nutrient quality. Other juicers (such as centrifugal juicers) have fast spinning blades that aggressively separate the fiber from the juice and cause harm to the enzymes and nutrients which devalues the quality of the juice and provides a much shorter lifespan (almost instant).

Q: Respectfully, can you explain why your juice costs what it costs?

A lot of time and effort (as well as produce) is required to make our juices. In fact there are over two pounds of produce in all our cold pressed juices! That is a lot of produce to prepare, juice, and bottle and is the reason why it may seem that our juices are pricey. In reality you will pay much more for a salad at a restaurant and receive much less in return in the way of nutrients and health.

Q: Your juices only last 3 days, can you shed some light on why?

We recommend that our juices be consumed within that timeframe so that you receive the full health (as well as taste) benefits; our products are all unpasteurized and raw. Research has shown that after about three days the nutritional value lowers with unpasteurized juices. Juices found on store shelves have been heavily pasteurized and no longer contain the benefits that fresh unpasteurized juices have. We also want customers to have the freshest, best tasting juice so we follow this guideline.

Q: Why Front Street?!

We love the edginess and industrial feel of Front Street. When we found our space we knew it wasn’t ‘cookie-cutter’, it wasn’t a typical juicery space and we loved that. We completely gutted the space and made it our own, using tons of refurbished and reclaimed material. The brick in our space came from an old chimney from a house in Queen’s Park!

Whether you are a local New Westian or just visiting, Rain City Juicery is a must-stop. Not only are their juices truly delicious (and super healthy) but the ambience of the juicery and friendly staff makes it truly a unique and very pleasant experience. Check them out at 417 Front Street (far east end, past the Army & Navy…..yup, keep going!)

*Tip* try the Rebel Lemonade. Not only is it delicious but it has some serious kick ass benefits (hint: drink this after a night of drinking other types of beverages).

#UncoveringFrontStreet