Now that Clifton store is open, Tropical Smoothie Cafe’s owners eye Fruita, Montrose

Tim Harty, The Business Times

When Alejandro Ramos and Katie Lang opened Tropical Smoothie Cafe at 2536 Rimrock Ave. in Grand Junction in April 2024, their intent was for it to be the first of several in the Grand Valley.

In mid-February, they opened Location 2 in Clifton. And Locations 3 and 4 may not be far behind.

The newest location is at 571 32 Road, in the middle of a strip mall that’s anchored by a Pizza Hut restaurant. Ramos and Lang stumbled upon the open unit after failing to land one in the nearby Peach Tree Center off the Interstate 70 Business Loop.

“We started looking in Clifton over a year ago, and in fact we started with the Peach Tree marketplace, and unfortunately weren’t able to make anything work with the landlord there,” Ramos said. “And so one day we just happened to be driving in the area, looking to see if anything had changed, and the landlord here had put out a lease sign, and we reached out, and here we are.”

Choosing Clifton for the second location was a matter of addressing the east end of the valley, and customer feedback suggested it was the place to be.

“We had a lot of people going to the Rimrock location that would tell us, ‘You need to open one in Clifton. I’m tired of driving this far,’” Ramos said.

Ramos and Lang, who aren’t married but said they will be “soon,” did a soft opening of the Clifton store on Feb. 11, then hosted a grand-opening weekend Feb. 27-March 1. On March 3, the Grand Junction Area Chamber of Commerce joined them for a ribbon cutting.

They said people are slowly figuring out the new location is open, and they will try to boost customer flow with “a lot of social media marketing” and “guerilla marketing.”

“We took a lot of samples into the nearby businesses and our little flyers for the grand opening,” Ramos said. “We’ve seen sales rising as people are becoming more and more aware. We still have some work to do, though, for sure.”

Once things get settled in Clifton, Ramos and Lang can turn their attention to the next locations.

“We came into the franchise intending to have three locations here in the greater Grand Junction area and one down in Montrose, assuming that everything went the way we were hoping it would,” Ramos said. “We saw that Rim Rock was doing well, and it gave us the confidence to open up over here.”

Ramos and Lang said they’re already searching for real estate in Fruita and Montrose, and it’s finding real estate that’s the real challenge, as they learned during their Clifton search.

“Just finding a good location that has the visibility and is within our price range and all that,” Ramos said.

They would love to get a location that would allow for a drive-through window.

“We would definitely like it,” Ramos said, and Lang added,“That would be ideal, but we’re not gonna be super picky. If a good spot’s available, that will be more important.”

Ramos agreed, saying, “Definitely, location over drive-through.”

In the meantime, the Grand Valley has two Tropical Smoothie locations to check out, and Ramos and Lang said several things set Tropical Smoothie Cafe apart from other smoothie joints. She pointed to it being a good combination of a healthy and affordable option with quick service, and, of course, “The smoothies are delicious.”

But don’t let the store’s name fool you.

“We are more than just smoothies,” Ramos said. “We have a lot of food options, including bowls, which have become a really popular thing across America in general. The food options are healthy. We’ve got a lot of ability to modify and add ingredients or remove ingredients, that kind of thing.

“But the smoothies themselves, I would say we stand out in that aspect because we do use actual fruits and veggies. I know that a lot of other folks that do smoothies, it tends to be more concentrate-heavy. We do have concentrates that we use for some of our smoothies, but we’ve got the strawberries and the bananas and the mangoes, all those actual fruit pieces that we’re using.”

Ramos said the Tropical Smoothie brand, “the vibe,” also appeals to people.

“You hear that word a lot lately, but we really do just aim to be welcoming and have that sort of tropical flavor and theme in terms of how we try to have fun,” he said.

Lang said it’s funny how something they think is obvious can be overlooked, then shared this: “We have regulars that come in for smoothies (at Rimrock Avenue) that will sometimes just be like, ‘I didn’t even realize you guys had food.’ Somehow they haven’t seen that entire half of the menu.”

She added, “The people who do know about the food always love the food.”

The food options include the bowls Ramos mentioned, plus sandwiches, wraps, flat breads, quesadillas (they call them ‘dillas), salads, sides and sweets. They also have a small breakfast menu with six items.

“The breakfast menu I always think is underrated,” Lang said.

Enough people realize there are more than smoothies on the menu, as Ramos said the Rimrock location gets such a good lunch crowd that “it’s our busiest time of the day. We build our staffing around those lunch hours.”

One more thing Ramos and Lang, a pair of Michigan transplants, want the Grand Valley to know is they’re serious about being part of the community.

“We try to be present,” they said, with Ramos starting the sentence and Lang finishing it.

“We love this area,” Ramos said, “so we want to see it continue to grow and prosper, and we want to be part of that.”