Ashland residents have another new restaurant to visit with the opening of Pulp Juice and Smoothie bar on Jan. 23.
Pulp recently opened its doors just off of US-250, two doors down from the recently opened Chipotle.

Pulp is a smoothie bar that offers over 30 freshly made smoothies along with salads, wraps, and freshly squeezed fruits and vegetables.

The journey of bringing a Pulp to Ashland started just over a year ago when co-owners, Justin Daubenmire and Jason Friedt, decided they wanted to own a franchise.

“Jason and I have been business partners in a couple of other ventures, we own a couple other companies and we started the Pulp journey about a year ago. We wanted to get into the franchise industry and we both wanted to get into something healthy, something that matters,” Daubenmire said. “We looked at all the smoothie shops and Pulp really kind of shined for us.”

Daubenmire said that the process of landing in Ashland started when the brokers of the the new plaza, Ashland Commons, reached out to them about opening their Pulp there.

“We came down here, we spent a lot of time down here, we drove around and we fell in love with the city immediately,” Daubenmire said. “I mean Ashland has a really cool vibe, the campus is really close. The plaza was just kind of that perfect spot. Close to the highway, close to a campus and the hype seemed real.”

Both owners said Ashland University played a major role in their decision to build in Ashland.

“Ashland University was big,” Daubenmire said. “It’s so close for us and obviously this plaza seemed to be a perfect split. Finding out Chipotle was going to be our neighbor and it seemed really kind of like a dream marriage between Chipotle, Pulp, the University it just seemed like a good combination.”

And students certainly agree with Daubenmire so far.

“I am very excited that Pulp is in Ashland. I am looking forward to spending time with my friends getting smoothies,” junior Grace Ecenbarger said. “I can’t wait to try all the flavors.”

Friedt said they have gotten a lot of students from AU to apply for positions at Pulp and that the majority of their staff has come from the university.

The owners said that they do not currently have any specific discounts for students, but they are looking into it and they will have promotions throughout the year that will be posted on their Facebook.

“We will do different promotions, you know seasonally and we definitely want to have a good relationship with the university, their activities and events and stuff like that so we wanna tie in one way or another.”

Pulp’s current hours are from 10 a.m. – 8 p.m. everyday, but Daubenmire said they will increase based upon the needs of the community.

“We are here to serve the community, that’s our main goal,” he said. “If the community wants us to open at 7 a.m. we’re opening at 7a.m., if the community wants us to be open till 10 p.m. we will be open to 10 p.m. but we have to feel out those needs.”

Daubenmire said what sets Pulp apart from other smoothie places is the fact that all of their food is fresh.

“Our food is fresh,” Daubenmire said. “You go to another place and you get a wrap, the wrap comes in a little plastic container that was delivered to them in that plastic container. You come in here and get a wrap, you will see our staff making your wrap right here ready to go.”

To see the full Pulp Menu check out their website at http://pulpjuiceandsmoothie.com.