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Palm Berries serves smoothies and smoothie bowls — blended fruits with such toppings as almonds, honey, chia seeds and chocolate chips. Everything at Palm Berries is vegetarian, with vegan and gluten-free options.

The heart of the menu is acai (pronounced “aa-sah-EE� or “aa-sigh-EE�) berries — the fruit of the acai palm tree — and the source of the chain’s name. Acai berries are touted for their high level of Vitamin C, fiber and antioxidants and are believed to help reduce swelling and bolster the immune system.

Just six years ago, Palm Berries was a small food trailer operating out of Denver, North Carolina.

The company was founded in 2019 by 28-year-old Noor Zahid, 25-year-old brother Ahsan Mehmood and their mother Erum Hussain, along with a friend, 29-year-old Chandler Gottlieb. All four had recently moved to the greater Charlotte area from New Jersey.

“This idea was already big in New Jersey,� Gottlieb said. “We knew it was going to be big here.�

They learned they were right pretty soon after launching the trailer — people would line up to get one of their acai bowls. Because some similar concepts already were in Charlotte, they decided to focus on bringing acai bowls to the suburbs.

“The food trailer was essentially a side hustle for us to begin with,� Gottlieb said. “I was working for Amazon. Noor was working as a chemist, and Ahsan was a student.�

At first, they just parked in the Publix parking lot in Denver, rotating shifts as each worked their other jobs or attended school, but they soon were encouraged to venture to other towns. When they went to Lincolnton and got just as favorable a response as they did in Denver, they knew they were on to something.

“It got to a point where we had such a big social-media following, it got to be like a cult in a way. We knew we wanted to open a store,� Gottlieb said.

They opened their first store in Denver in July 2020. They opened their second in Mooresville one year later, in July 2021.

Other stores followed in Hickory, Lincolnton, Cornelius, Concord, Raleigh, Boone, and in Arlington, Va.

The menu includes about a half dozen special bowls and a handful of smoothie “blends� served in cups.

The bowls come in 12-, 16- and 24-ounce sizes, starting at $10.99 and going up to $20.99. Customers also can create their own.

Palm Berries uses six different bases of pre-blended fruits. All but one have acai berries in them. Customers can choose from a 100% acai base, acai and bananas; acai with strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, blackberries and bananas; acai with protein powder, spinach and bananas; and more. (The restaurant will even sell 64-ounce containers of the bases for creating your own smoothie bowls.)

Customers can add sliced fruit on top of the blended fruit, choosing from blueberries and sliced mango, banana, strawberries, kiwi and pineapple.

Sprinkling toppings include almonds, coconut flakes, cocoa nibs, flax seeds, hemp seeds and more. And then there are such “drizzles� as peanut butter, white chocolate, caramel and others.

Some of the special bowls include the Protein Bowl with the base of acai, protein powder, spinach and bananas, topped with strawberries, banana, cacao nibs, hemp seeds and peanut butter. The Queen City Bowl features the Very Berry Base topped with strawberries, blueberries, coconut flakes, goji berries and honey. The Sami bowl has an acai and banana base with sliced almonds, hemp seeds, peanut butter and Nutella.

The menu has nine different “blends,� or smoothies, available in 16- or 24-ounce cups. They start at $7.49 and go up to $10.24.

The Flamingo features pitaya (dragonfruit) with strawberries, pineapple, orange juice and agave. The Gainz contains bananas, peanut butter, wheat protein, cacao nibs and almond milk.

Though all of these products are mostly fruit and thus generally healthy, the calories can add up: A 16-ounce Gainz blend has 560 calories, and a 12-ounce Sami bowl has 720 calories.

Gottlieb said the company is focused on expanding even more. A store in Matthews is set to open in September, followed by their first Charlotte store in October. Gottlieb said they plan to open three more Charlotte locations before the end of the year.

He said that people really respond to these fresh bowls of fruit.

“What’s really heartwarming is people will come in here and tell us the amount of fruit we put in a bowl is more fruit than they would eat in an entire year,� Gottlieb said. “Acai bowls can be high in calories, but as along as you’re not going overboard with the Nutella and things like that, they can and should be considered healthy — because they’re whole foods. And it feels really good to be able to provide that to the community.�