Berry Social's nutritious take on sweet treats is a home run

Sometimes, the destinations I choose to review are more a matter of necessity than priority. In the case of Berry Social, The Grub Spouse and I were attending a concert at The Mill & Mine a couple of weeks ago and wanted to dispatch a second bird by also working in a Grub outing. Turned out that Ber

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Sometimes, the destinations I choose to review are more a matter of necessity than priority. In the case of Berry Social, The Grub Spouse and I were attending a concert at The Mill & Mine a couple of weeks ago and wanted to dispatch a second bird by also working in a Grub outing. Turned out that Berry Social, located just outside Covenant Health Park downtown, was only a few blocks’ walk from the concert venue.

We had the place to ourselves when we arrived on the early side of the dinner window. The space definitely had that new-restaurant smell, and the sparkly-clean interior boasted modern styling with unique lighting fixtures and orange chairs that provided sharp accents of color.

The fare at Berry Social consists of soft-serve acai bowls and

smoothies. On the soft-serve side, the menu offers 10 signature items, all featuring an acai base with various combinations of ingredients applied to the top. Examples include the Berry Social Bowl (strawberries, banana, granola and honey), the Rocky Top (coconut oil, banana, pineapple, strawberries, granola and lemon zest) and the Dolly-themed Jolene (raspberries, banana, Gojo berries, granola and red raspberry puree).

All orders come with a choice of the original soft-serve formula or the d-lite version, which contains 50 percent less added pure cane sugar. I went with the original base when I ordered the Scruffy City Bowl ($11 for a small). That’s made with blueberries, banana, toasted coconut, chia and flax seeds, granola and honey. The Spouse got the d-lite base as part of a small Summitt Bowl ($11), which features strawberries, chocolate chips, cashews, granola and honey.

Customers are also welcome to add more toppings, choosing from nearly 30 different ingredients that range in price from 75 cents to $1.50 each.

All smoothies are 16 ounces, and the menu features six such recipes. Four are made with acai soft serve, and additional ingredients include a variety of fruits, juices and other nutritious add-ins. Smoothies cost $10 or $11, and other unique blend-ins like ashwagandha, green spirulina, unflavored pea protein, collagen protein, vitamin C boost and whey powders are available for $1 to $2 each.

The Spouse and I settled in at a table while the employee on duty went to work on our bowls. It didn’t take her long, and soon, she was delivering our orders to our table. My first thought was that I was glad I had only ordered a small. I had seen the cup sizes when I ordered, but once the finished product was set in front of me, it appeared that it would be more than enough for one sitting. In fact, I can’t conceive of one person taking on a large as a solo project.

These types of acai-bowl restaurants have been popping up all over the Knoxville area in recent years, and generally, there’s not much to substantively separate them. But I did find the ingredients in my Scruffy City Bowl to be especially agreeable with my taste buds that evening. The acai base had the texture of a good sorbet, and the frozen purple stuff was sweet though not excessively so. I was particularly pleased with the choice of toppings I selected. The blueberries and bananas provided some flavor contrast, while the coconut flakes were a tasty accent. The granola added some crunchy texture, and the honey tied it all together with one more layer of sweet goodness.

I tasted a couple of bites of The Spouse’s Summitt Bowl and found the same quality prevalent in a slightly similar configuration. The tartness of the strawberries offset the sweetness of the chocolate chips, while the cashews delivered a different crunch experience.

I’m guessing that their business model will rely more heavily on downtown residents during the baseball off-season and that they’ll do a brisk business when the Smokies take the field again next spring. But even since the boys of summer have gone, I have found that Berry Social’s sweetly nutritious treats are still a home run.