Smoothie Me Please officially reopened its doors on April 13 in downtown West Palm Beach. After a one-year hiatus, owner Ashley Walker said it was time to reopen a brick-and-mortar location.
On April 9, Walker, her family and a few invited guests celebrated a ribbon-cutting ceremony and menu preview. Amid the festivities, The Palm Beach Beat sat down with the owner to talk about rest, return, and the role Black businesses play in restoring joy, presence and possibility back to the block.
According to Walker, reopening her smoothie shop was both an intuitive and team-inspired decision. “My team basically said, ‘Your break time is over. Let’s get back to business,’” she said. Walker admits that closing her previous location in Riviera Beach was a decision made to take a much-needed break and avoid burnout. She says this new location is a “continuation” of her entrepreneurial journey. “I’m not starting from scratch. I’m starting from experience,” Walker said.
Having made time for both rest and reflection, Walker says she trusts her gut and is sticking to her improved business processes this time around. “We’re trusting our gut. We’re making decisions and going with it,” she said.
When asked about her definition of Black joy, Walker had this to say:
“Black joy for me equates to Black freedom, almost like Black luxury… To own my time. To answer to myself… that is the biggest form of freedom [and] the biggest form of joy that I could ever have.”
She adds that it is her goal as a business owner to spread that joy to the community within the vicinity of the shop. “The Black Joy at Smoothie Me Please here in downtown West Palm Beach will look colorful, it will be friendly, it will be kind, it will exude love… We’re gonna have so much laughter here,” Walker said.
Providing a fresh, nutritious and reasonably priced product is also one of Walker’s goals. From the smoothie flavors and menu item names, Walker says Smoothie Me Please is “a love story to the communities that have raised us and that support us.”
As for inspiring her community, Walker said, “I just want them to know that there was a little Black girl who had a dream and she went all in on it. She bet on herself. She educated herself. She was disciplined. She executed, and it yielded tremendous results.”
Smoothie Me Please is located at 407 N. Rosemary Ave. in downtown West Palm Beach. Visit their Instagram page @SmoothieMePlease for hours of operation and the latest updates.
See more video clips from this interview on our YouTube page.
