Popular Pensacola Beach acai shop expanding to downtown

Bear Fruit Bowls and Coffee won Pensacola Beach over last spring for its build-your-own-acai bowls and handcrafted cold brews. Now, the business is growing with a new permanent food truck on 260 S. Tarragona Street set to celebrate its grand opening this Saturday.

Company owners Ryan and Alexis Ford built their business off the idea of nourishing people’s bodies and souls by providing a space for people to “refuel, recharge and be encouraged.”

The acai bowl bar is lined with fresh ingredients for a sweet treat that still maintains health benefits.

How the build-your-own bowls work

Customers begin by choosing a base for their bowls of organic acai, dragon fruit, pure coconut or blue spirulina. Then, they can choose a protein of either almond or peanut butter before selecting their toppings.

Toppers such as goji berries, cacao nibs, granola and mango cubes are available to pack in the bowl’s flavor. The bowl is topped off with a drizzling finisher of their choice, with options such as Nutella, honey, agave nectar or elderberry syrup.

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The truck will have a special “bowl of the month” for the indecisive customers, where the staff choose a perfect combo of toppings for guests to try.

Starting at 7 a.m. Saturday, the first 50 guests can test out the new spot for themselves with a free bowl and live music playing from 9 a.m. to noon. The outdoor area provides seating for about 40 people and is equipped for weather with waterproof umbrellas.

Owners pass the torch for new location

The Fords had no idea how well their Pensacola Beach location would be supported by the community, even through Pensacola’s trying off-season winter months. They were initially given a six-month trial lease to test the waters, and it turns out — the community showed up.

Once Ryan Ford saw how well the concept was working, he wanted to bring the brand to more people. But the most important thing was serving his local community first.

“The best thing that I think it can grow is to start local, then you start regional, and then you start statewide — then you start to expand from that. But it has to start in the heartbeat of where it began, and that is Pensacola,” Ford said.

Part of expanding means selecting good leaders, which led him to meeting Sam and Jackie Cambron, who will be serving as business partners that own and operate the downtown’s food truck location.

When first meeting Sam Cambron, who was new to Pensacola, Ford offered him the advice that: “If you have an entrepreneurial bone in your body: this is the place to do it,” due to Pensacola’s overwhelming support for small business owners.

Little did Ford know he would eventually offer the Cambrons a partnership into his own family’s business.

Merging the old with the new

The Cambrons plan to utilize the same menu as the Pensacola Beach location, such as the wide variety of acai bowl options, and the coffees from nearby Amavida Coffee Roasters, but with a new customer base in Pensacola’s historic district that neighbors the YMCA.

The courtyard that will house the food truck dates to 1898, according to Sam Cambron.

“The historic district is so beautiful. We wanted to do something where we could give people a reason to come to the historic district,” Sam said. “I just really loved the brick, and all the greenery here and just had the vision of, ‘OK, we’re going to do a food truck.’”

This wasn’t just any food truck though. It was a remake of an old type of Citroen truck used to deliver glass bottles of milk across France.

Ryan Ford said the polished, vintage look falls in tune with his Pensacola Beach location’s décor, and the company’s outlook driven by their faith.

“If you’ve been in our shop at the beach, you’ll see a bunch of old school stuff. We collect all of it. I love that and I love the idea of making something old, new. I think the Citroen fits that to the T and it goes back to everything we believe. In our lives — we were old until we were made new,” Ryan Ford said.

Reshaping the way of Pensacola's customer service

The most eager to open shop among the Cambron family is the couple's 9-year-old daughter, Summer, whose voice can be heard on the downtown location’s voicemail recording.  The two consider her their “No. 1 employee.”

“It’s really fun to see the next generation get excited about work,” Sam Cambron said.

It’s not just their own children they are investing in, but many of the company’s employees are teenagers that start as early as 15 years old. The Cambrons had no trouble finding employees at their new location, due to the excitement to work for the surf-inspired, sustainable Bear Fruit brand that the Fords built that has now spilled over into the new location.

Ford says he hopes to reclaim the American way of customer service by cultivating valuable people skills in its employees through mentorship and monthly meetings.

“My dad used to tell me this in baseball a lot — if you can learn how to hit the ball, they’ll find you a position … so if you can learn to work with people, well, you can have any position in the work field that you want,” Ryan Ford said.

“I just wanted to say we are very thankful for Lexi and Ryan for them to come up with this amazing 'lifestyle brand,' with God’s help. Because He was involved in every single detail of this whole process as well,” Jackie Cambron added.

The downtown location of Bear Fruit and Coffee will be from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. Monday through Saturday starting July 1.

More updates and information can be found on the Bear Fruit Bowls and Coffee social media pages.

This article originally appeared on Pensacola News Journal: Bear Fruit Bowls adds downtown Pensacola food truck this Saturday