CoreLife Eatery has a message for diners when it opens in Ross on Friday: “Change your lunch, change your life.” And it’s delivering it with bowls of greens, grains and broth that have clean flavors and are freshly made-to-order in minutes.
The 4,500-square-foot restaurant at the remodeled Block Northway on McKnight Road also has plenty of vibe. The color orange pops any way you look — be it in the ceiling panels, booths, inside of the dome lights or on a large carrot poster.
The high-ceiling room, with booths, tables and a long family-style table, seats around 100 and more seating is available on the outdoor patio with string lights. The space is brightly lit with natural light streaming in through the tall glass windows and with the help of pendants and purposeful backlights.
Wood paneling made with charred cyprus runs around the restaurant. Motivating messages to adopt an active lifestyle are scattered throughout the room including the black underboard below the paneling. “Get back into the game,” says one and “Not a spectator,” says another.
The music is loud, keeping pace with the energy. “We want the beat to make people feel alive,” said one of the four co-owners, Todd Mansfield, who has a doctorate in physical therapy and a fellowship in nutrition and metabolic medicine.
He said his partners wanted to start a restaurant with a healthy food concept, and he wanted them to understand what it meant. “We are sensitive and mindful of people with food allergies. We put a value to it and don’t think of it as a burden,” he said.
A young and efficient staff quickly tosses together a bowl of your choice using fresh vegetables displayed on the shelves behind the counter.
The food echoes the vibe, too, in flavors and combinations. The menu is categorized into Green Bowls, Grain Bowls and Broth Bowls and each item is accompanied by a calorie count. All the dressings and broths are made from scratch, said co-owner John Caveny, and every one of the lemons for the lemonade is squeezed fresh every day. Also, only antibiotic-free chicken and grass-fed beef are featured.
Salads, aka, Green Bowls, are served with gluten-free dressings such as carrot-chili, Thai cashew and Greek yogurt blue. Spicy Ginger Steak ($8.95; 290 calories) is tossed with kale, arugula, green and red peppers and Sriracha while the Mediterranean ($8.45; 440 calories) combines romaine and kale with falafel, cucumbers, tomatoes, onion and feta.
Grain Bowls have more texture than the salads and have quinoa, rice noodles or wild rice. A grilled chicken ($8.45; 650 calories) takes on a Southwestern accent when combined with jalapenos, tortilla strips, black beans, corn and scallions and is tossed with wild rice. Quinoa is paired with tuna poke ($10.59; 560 calories) and ginger tofu ($7.95; 300 calories).
Chicken, steak and tofu are the proteins in the Broth Bowls, which are all under $9, and a tomato-basil soup is made with vegetable broth and cauliflower puree.
Soda and chips are not served at CoreLife and nor is dessert. The sweetest thing available are the beverages. Lemonades come in creative flavors. While the beet and cucumber-basil are sweet, the cranberry-cayenne has a wonderful slight kick. A mildly sweet fruit punch is made with coconut water.
CoreLife started in Syracuse, N.Y., in 2015, and the Ross location is its 14th store. (It’s the second one in Pennsylvania.) Headquartered in Vestal, N.Y., the chain has been expanding rapidly ever since it opened its first one in Syracuse, N.Y., in 2015. It is now in Ohio, Michigan, Kentucky and Utah.
“We were moving into the Midwest, and Pittsburgh seemed like a logical city as we head that way. We wanted the swath of real estate,” Mr. Mansfield said. “In addition, Pittsburgh is drawing more millennials, and that’s what we are looking for.”
There also was a personal connection for him — his father is from Mt. Lebanon and mother from Oil City.
The expansion has been possible because people everywhere are seeking healthy places to eat, Mr. Caveny said, and CoreLife is able to fulfill that desire. “There are restaurants that offer healthy foods but you have to manage the menu and decide what will offset what,” he said. “Here, no matter what you order, it’s good for you.”
Arthi Subramaniam: asubramaniam@post-gazette.com, 412-263-1494 or on Twitter @arthisub.
If you go
CoreLife Eatery opens Friday at 8009 McKnight Road, The Block Northway, Ross. Hours: 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. daily. Call 412-799-6030.
First Published: June 29, 2017, 11:33 p.m.
