Superfood bar opens in Sonoma’s Maxwell Village

When Jamba Juice closed in the West Napa Street Safeway, acai fans were left without any place local to buy a bowl of the frozen superfruit.

But this week a young couple opens El Huerto, a superfood bar in the back left corner of Maxwell Village, between Little Caesars and Great Clips.

'We want to bring to Sonoma a casual family-friendly environment where you can experience acai bowls, super-foods and crepes, all of which are made with fresh ingredients on a daily basis,' said Susan Coronado. 'We want to fill the healthy-food gap. We hope to bring more energy to Sonoma.'

Susan and her husband Adrian, both 30, have been honing their 'eat fresh' offering for about two years. Previously, they owned a fresh fruit, smoothies and crepes kiosk at the Northgate Mall in San Rafael.

But they moved to Sonoma last year and immediately fell in love with everything about the Valley.

'We moved here because we knew it was the right community for our kids to grow up in,' said Susan, referring to their 3-year-old son and 9-month-old daughter.

'After we settled, we discovered that there were no super-food bars or places where they served acai bowls,' said Susan. 'Since our goal was to eventually open a restaurant we decided to speed up the process, and started working on getting El Huerto of Sonoma open. We are a young family of four trying our hardest to be a positive impact to our community through our love for good clean honest food.'

'Both my husband and I come from families of farmers who have passed on their passion for people and food down to us,' said Susan. 'One day we hope to have a farm with an orchard so I can cook the family meals with freshly picked ingredients.' She grew up in California, and Adrian in Mexico.

'We avoid anything processed such as powders and syrup in the food we prepare,' she explained. 'We make everything fresh including our acai bowls.'

The Coronados worked hard to get El Huerto ready to welcome the public on Friday, Jan. 19 when they open at noon.

'We believe in being a blessing to everyone around you, and we hope to be just that for Sonoma,' said Susan. 'Through hard work and steps of faith we now get to see our dreams come true with El Huerto.'

El Huerto superfood bar is open seven days a week at 19213 Sonoma Highway; weekdays from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m., Saturdays from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. and Sundays from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. The menu is online at elhuertohealthysna.wixsite.com/clean.

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