Wonder Press is perhaps Boulder’s most nourishing public space, and that’s before you even taste the menu of largely organic juices, smoothies and tonics crafted from carefully sourced, often local ingredients.
The light-filled, exposed-brick restaurant-coffee shop-juice bar on Pearl Streets West End at 946 Pearl Street has natural wood tables and chairs, a long bench with cushions, a relaxed cared-for vibe and an energy humming at the speed of fresh fruit and veggies.
The company specializes in producing non-pasteurized, fresh juices from carefully sourced roots, greens, fruits and nuts. Two of its most popular are Spicy Greens (cucumber, celery, kale, parsley, lemon + ginger) and Take Root (cucumber, carrot, beet, apple, ginger + lemon). It also has espresso, tea, smoothies and a small menu of food.
Wonder can easily fall into Boulder’s precious tendencies, but the care, attention to detail and vibe Wonder cultivates reflects some of Boulder’s purest intentions.
Wonder Press co-founder Robyn Cronin. Photo: Eric Forbes.
On a recent weekday, Boulder-local Robyn Cronin, who founded Wonder in 2015 with two friends, drove around East Boulder hunting for a new production kitchen.
The shop’s lease expires on its current production kitchen soon, which prompted her hunt. But something else pulls her, too.
With four years of honing its recipes and service in Boulder, Wonder is prepping for an expansion into Denver’s LoHi neighborhood and it could use a larger production space.
[Read about another of our favorite places: BMoCA]
‘Exquisitely made things’
In a city full of ideals, Wonder was built to deliver them in juice form.
Wonder carefully sources the ingredients that go into all of its juices, smoothies, coffee and more. That’s perhaps its biggest standout feature, says Robyn, a graduate of Shining Mountain High School in North Boulder.
“We care about every single ingredient,” Robyn says. She describes the restaurant’s sourcing as obsessive.
The company does not just have one distributor, for example. It has individual relationships with over 100 suppliers.
For example, soon after launching Wonder decided to make bone broth as it had lots of tops and bottoms of carrots and celery from making juices. Instead of tossing, the company decided to use it and other leftover food scraps to make bone broth with chicken bones from a free-range chicken farm in California’s central valley.
After hunting around, Wonder found Longmont-based McCauley Family Farm to source its healthy, 100-percent pasture-raised chickens, and made the switch. It’s not only about local, but about forming relationships with suppliers who Wonder feels produces sustainable ingredients.
Extrapolate that to ginger or matcha or the many other ingredients it sources and you can sense Wonder’s challenge and dedication.
“Want to be the best juice made on the planet,” Robyn says.
The future
In addition to moving Wonder’s juice concept into Denver (it’s currently negotiating with landlords), Wonder is working on using more and more of its pulp in additional products such as baking with nut pulps, developing spreads and more.
It has switched matcha purveyors four or five times in the last few months, seeking to find the most sustainable partner.
Feature image: Wonder on Pearl Street. Photo: Eric Forbes.
Editor’s note: This story has been updated to correct the name of the Longmont farm where Wonder gets its chicken bones. It gets its bones from McCauley Family Farm not Cully Organic Farm as stated in the original version of this story.
