Clients wait in line exterior a New York Pura Vida location.
Photograph: Courtesy of Pura Vida
I’m not a very relaxed particular person. Nobody in my life would say I drift. A number of folks have proactively advised me I might not like Berlin. So I used to be nervous about my first go to to Pura Vida Miami — a fast-casual chain from the Sunshine State that has totally exploded throughout New York Metropolis in recent times with the verve of an overshaken AminoLean — after its followers variously described it to me as “a vibe” and “just like the seashore.”
“Somebody who may be very depressing would have a depressing time in Pura Vida,” mentioned one. But on a wet Monday afternoon in July, I crossed the brink of the newly opened Fifth Avenue location. At a Pokeworks down the block, a bowl of spicy ahi tuna and greens prices about $14. At Pura Vida, the same Spicy Tuna Bowl prices $25, however, its followers assured me, there’s rather more on provide. Pura Vida isn’t just a smoothie bar, or a slop-bowl meeting line, or a Sweetgreen, or a café, however a healthy-ish chimera of all 4 in ambiguously tropical packaging.
Inside, diners lifted slices of avocado toast to their mouths as they typed into spreadsheets. One lady in a Dôen shirt sipped a creamy baby-blue drink as if she was in no hurry to complete it. A music so imprecise that even Shazam couldn’t detect it emanated from audio system hidden someplace within the lofty area embellished in white and impartial woods. It felt like stepping right into a well-maintained tooth. It felt like getting just a bit little bit of a lobotomy. Even the “Moist Flooring” signal was made from gold.
“What’s that scent?” I requested a smiling worker nestled inside the doorway. The air was balmy and floral. “It’s customized,” mentioned a passing server whose identification tag spelled her identify in Scrabble tiles. I ordered a Welcome to Miami smoothie for $10.95, which got here out in lower than 5 minutes, and settled right into a bouncy, plush sales space. I used to be there to attempt to perceive how this contentious chain restaurant from Miami had begun to dominate New York Metropolis with eight places cropping up in simply two years — and to search out out why they at all times appear to be packed. There are extra places nationwide (55 and counting) than there are presidential libraries. Final November, the non-public fairness agency TSG Shopper Companions bought a stake in Pura Vida at an undisclosed valuation; final month, the corporate introduced three new C-suite hires. Pura Vida is, in trendy parlance, positioned to go “up and to the best.” However as I settled into my sales space, lulled by the whir of blenders, that didn’t appear so pressing. I took a sip of the smoothie from a cup that learn “One other day in paradise the place well being is happiness,” and I leaned again, content material simply to stare into area for the primary time all day.
Final fall, Topher Griffin discovered himself particularly wired. It was Vogue Week in New York Metropolis, and the 24-year-old was working in PR for a clothes model, which left him with perhaps ten harried minutes to seize lunch daily. When he noticed a Pura Vida Miami had opened close to his workplace, he says, “it was an emotional feeling.” Griffin knew the chain effectively whereas a scholar on the College of Miami. “It was the primary spot you hit on Saturday or Sunday morning; a day in my life after going out was Uber Eats–ing two Rooster Caesar Kale Wraps to my house and chowing these down,” he recollects. In reality, he’d cherished Pura Vida a lot, he thought-about staying in Miami as an alternative of shifting north.
“As quickly as I walked inside, I really was transported again,” he says now. He bought his typical, the Chopped Rooster Caesar Wrap, and loved it a lot he returned the remaining 4 days that week.
Pura Vida’s interiors favor white surfaces and blonde wooden.
Photograph: Courtesy of Pura Vida
It isn’t simply Florida transplants who make up what Rebecca Schneider known as Pura Vida’s “cult following.” Schneider, who’s 29 and lives in Union Sq., attended the opening of the primary New York location in summer season 2024 after clocking the excitement on-line. She has returned numerous instances since, for that Chopped Rooster Caesar Wrap, the Miami Mocha smoothie, and a espresso providing known as Banana Brew. Not too long ago, Schneider, who works in promoting, made it over to the Fifth Avenue location to submit a evaluate when a brand new fro-yo providing dropped. “The life-style picture it promotes — folks organically combine it into their Instagram, them sipping a smoothie,” she says. “Ladies who go to a exercise class daily or are on the Alo fitness center, it is a seamless factor that correlates with their model picture. It’s the sensation that a spot offers you. You need a spot to make you are feeling like a primary character.”
Repeatedly, that was how followers talked about Pura Vida: not as if they have been describing what a hater may name a yassified Le Ache Quotidien however as if they have been reliving a young reminiscence. An acquaintance who works in meals is a secret maniac for the place (so secretive that she requested me to not get any extra particular about her job than that); she finds the rooster breast “weirdly juicy in a approach that doesn’t freak me out” after which confessed, as soon as I supplied her anonymity, “I actually attempt to not do the supply factor as a result of it feels dangerous in my soul, however perhaps as soon as a month and I would like a factor, and by ‘a factor,’ I imply a Jen’s Herb Salad with rooster breast and a soft-boiled egg. I want I used to be inside a Pura Vida proper now.”
Griffin concurs: “If you’re in a Pura Vida, it actually is sort of a spa expertise. After I consider Pura Vida, I consider stunning — though faux — crops.”
New York is a metropolis that’s not straightforward to crack,” says Omer Horev, the 41-year-old co-founder and CEO of Pura Vida Miami. As we speak, he’s standing in entrance of a pc, Zooming into our interview from firm headquarters in Miami. His spouse, Jennifer (“Jen”), the chief model officer and co-founder, sits behind him at a desk. Omer says, “Folks advised us, ‘It’s by no means going to work in New York.’”
By the point the Horevs have been able to open in Manhattan, they’d successful on their arms in South Florida with two dozen places. Issues have been going effectively — Alix Earle was a fan — and the chain had grown from a single 1,000-square-foot location in South Seashore with inexperienced tiles and neon paint that Jen “couldn’t stand,” in response to Omer. He had owned the spot for a few years however not till he met and commenced up to now Jen in 2015 — they each labored in actual property; he had an inventory, and he or she had a purchaser — did he resolve to get severe about it. Jen launched a visible overhaul, and collectively the couple upgraded the espresso program and added juice and a breakfast menu.
“I bear in mind being in Tulum and getting açai bowls and smoothies and all of those loopy superfoods,” says Jen. “We have been sitting beneath a pergola made from ropes. We have been actually, really on trip and felt this sense of escape, and I used to be like, ‘I need this sense in Miami.’” The neutrals and whites adopted, as did all of the fake (and sometimes actual) greenery. The couple took benefit of COVID-era real-estate pricing to go from 5 places to 9 in 2021 and shortly started to consider increasing exterior Florida.
Omer spent almost two years exploring New York Metropolis neighborhoods (the couple has household in New Jersey), and in July 2024, they threw open the doorways to their twenty fifth Pura Vida Miami, at 1151 Broadway at twenty sixth Avenue. “The home windows have been simply blue and mentioned ‘From Miami with love XO,’ and we didn’t do any branding,” says Jen. On the primary day, Omer says, 1,800 folks confirmed up.
Andrew McCaughan, who not too long ago joined the group as chief improvement officer from Shake Shack, mentioned New Yorkers can anticipate two extra Pura Vida places within the metropolis earlier than the top of this yr. After I requested in regards to the dangers of oversaturation, he identified that New York Metropolis alone has dozens of Shake Shacks.
Critics, in fact, abound. One level of rivalry: the identify Pura Vida, which accurately interprets to “pure life” in Spanish however is a type of unofficial mantra in Costa Rica invoked to acknowledge gratitude, positivity, and extra. (The Horevs have but to go to Costa Rica; they merely fell in love with the identify.) One other: the model’s political alignment. In 2023, Doha Information reported {that a} Qatari location of Pura Vida had shuttered after boycotts arose in response to pro-Israel posts made on social media by Omer, who was born in Israel.
For Avery Knudson, a 25-year-old server who lives in Brooklyn, it was the costs, not the politics, that bought her goat. She remembers her first go to and the breakfast wrap she ordered for $14.95: “It was simply stupidly costly. You’ll anticipate it to have some type of taste with the greens they placed on it since you’re paying a hefty worth, nevertheless it was the identical stage or worse than a bodega wrap.” It could be the right restaurant for an period of commodified wellness, and that, she provides, is an issue. “It shouldn’t simply be good since you haven’t had actual meals shortly.” Knudson discovered the whitewashed interiors “soul sucking” too: “It felt like a bunch of individuals in a company room bought collectively and determined what could be most interesting to the biggest group of individuals whereas placing within the smallest quantity of persona.”
Then there was the tuna debacle. In December 2025, the New York Publish ran a narrative with the headline “NYC well being meals chain Pura Vida’s tuna sandwich has 4 instances the fats of a Massive Mac.” The tabloid reported that “the sodium and fats quantities in a number of staples are making a mockery of well being suggestions” — particularly, a tuna sandwich with 145 grams of fats.
“My favourite matter,” says Omer sarcastically once I deliver up the story. In response to the Horevs, the Publish truly reported an error on the menu. “It was a calculation mistake,” says Omer. Nonetheless, that sandwich is not on the menu, having been changed by a tuna-avocado variation with 41 grams of fats.
It could take greater than that to shift the allegiance of true believers. “Folks both journey for it or roll their eyes at it,” says my nameless meals good friend. “Sweetgreen was by no means like that.” However detractors say it contributes to each the sameification — certainly, Pura Vida’s Nomad location sits between a Sweetgreen and a Fellow Barber and is throughout the road from the Smith — and Miamification of New York.
What units Pura Vida Miami other than Erewhon, Goop, or a barely much less deranged Joe & the Juice? Any variety of fast-casual rivals provide comparable primary fare. It could be the sheer amount of people that work there. Regardless of a full home on a latest go to to the Nomad location, I counted solely 26 seconds earlier than a merry server seen, wiped down, and turned over a just-evacuated desk within the very again nook for me. Eleven workers have been seen within the slender area, mixing smoothies and bussing tables. Subsequent door at Sweetgreen, I counted solely 5. In response to Omer, there are between 400 and 500 workers throughout Pura Vida’s New York places, and hospitality is central to the Horevs’ imaginative and prescient. Eighty p.c of their enterprise, he estimates, is completed in particular person; this alone units the chain other than takeout-oriented operations like Goop or Rooted.
“Come into our shops and take a look at the bases of our tables the place folks kick and scuff,” says Chad Brauze, the not too long ago employed chief culinary officer, who has eaten at Pura Vida daily for 40 days since accepting his new place. “We go in and clear these each night time. It raises the bar for what quick informal could be.”
On my first journey to the Fifth Avenue flagship, the fro-yo machine was out of service, so I returned every week later to attempt a brand new providing sweetened by allulose, which an indication on the counter declared “doesn’t sometimes increase blood glucose or insulin ranges.” Simply as I had whereas sipping a smoothie throughout my first journey, I zoned out as quickly as I sat with my Berry Bliss and got here to some minutes later with an empty cup, tapping my foot to the beat of … one thing. By the point I emerged again onto the road, I used to be stunned to recollect it was raining. The stench of city life hit me, foul towards the customized scent pumped into each Pura Vida.
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For those who want to learn in print, you too can discover this text within the July 20, 2026, problem of
New York Journal.
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For those who want to learn in print, you too can discover this text within the July 20, 2026, problem of
New York Journal.