SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. – Rebekah and Don Havard are no strangers to bringing new food establishments to South Lake Tahoe. After arriving in town in 2017, they opened up Chicken in a Barrel the next year, followed by the Baked Bear near Stateline in 2019 and then Tahoe Tessie’s Beach Bites at Lakeview Commons. They have had concessions at theLake Tahoe Outdoor Concert series and at the Tahoe Blue Event Center.
Now, the Havard’s newest venture, Juice It Up, is open inside the new Cascade Kitchens Food Hall & Bar in South Lake Tahoe.
They opened a kiosk inside on December 8 with plans to open a second location near the Baked Bear at Stateline, keeping both locals and visitors with smoothie and acai bowl options at each end of town. All the stalls are full inside the food hall, but Juice It Up is located near the entry in a kiosk. They take orders, and staff in the back prepare the items and bring them to the customers.
No stranger to franchises, Rebekah Havard is excited to bring Juice It Up to Tahoe. The business started in the town of Brea in Southern California, the city where Rebekah raised her children 30 years ago. The brand is known for its handcrafted smoothies, bowls and juices, though fresh-squeezed juices will not be featured in Tahoe until they have a larger space.
“It excites me to be part of this family,” Rebekah said of Juice It Up.
Since opening at the Y, Juice It Up has been attracting many customers who are new to the brand and are already hooked on the menu items. Each item can be adjusted due to preferences and allergies.
“We can easily make adjustments,” said Rebekah.
So far, the most popular is the Strawberry Wave (which happens to be the biggest seller franchise-wide, too). Her favorite? The Lava Flow! So far, I have tried the Mango Mania and an Açaí bowl (without yogurt due to a dairy allergy) and enjoyed both with the extra fruit they add to make up for the lack of yogurt.
In a rush? Customers can download the Juice It Up app and order ahead of time (and choose the time for pick-up). Menu items can also be delivered via DoorDash and Uber Eats.
As with her other businesses, Rebekah helps out with fundraisers and is available for catering events. They already provided smoothies for this year’s soccer tournaments and are available with the rest of the occupants at Cascade Kitchens to do dine-in fundraisers, too. They can support banners for sports, as well.
“We want to be part of the community as much as we can. We want to be involved,” she said of all of her food outlets.
The community can support Juice It Up as well – Rebekah needs to have enough sales over their first 90 days at the Y to prove to the corporation that it should stay.
They are open daily 11 a.m. to 7 p.m., though you can normally find them open for customers before that. Cascade Kitchens is located at 1030 Tata Lane, South Lake Tahoe.
For more information on menus and downloading the app, visit https://juiceitup.com/.
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