A collaborative storefront between a yoga studio and a restaurant opened in Harvard Sq. on Tuesday, providing meditation, massages, and meals at its location on John F. Kennedy Avenue.
The Wellness Collaborative is the primary retailer to open out of a partnership between Life Alive Natural Cafe and Down Beneath Yoga Studio, although each firms have a number of unbiased places in Massachusetts. The companies plan to open a second collaborative in Boston’s South Finish in March.
Life Alive CEO Bryan C. Timko mentioned he hopes the collaboration will supply shoppers a “third place” to spend time, along with their houses and workplaces.
“We’ve actually taken the time to work on creating an area that’s very particular, house that lifts you up and calms you down on the identical time — an area that makes you’re feeling at dwelling and makes you’re feeling welcome,” he mentioned.
Each companies opened in 2004. The partnership between the 2 firms took place “in a reasonably pure manner,” Down Beneath proprietor Justine Wiltshire Cohen mentioned.
Cohen mentioned she usually patronized Life Alive after yoga lessons and finally started recommending the cafe to her college students.
Cohen at present operates three different Down Beneath places within the Boston space. Within the fall, Cohen confronted public scrutiny when the Boston Globe reported that ex-employees had accused her of making a poisonous work setting and berating workers members. After public complaints from dozens of former workers, Cohen did away with a noncompete clause that beforehand saved ex-employees from educating at different studios inside a 12 months of their departure from Down Beneath, in line with the Globe.
Timko, a Harvard Enterprise Faculty alum, beforehand served as an govt at Staples and Panera Bread, in line with his LinkedIn profile. He took over as CEO of Stay Alive in 2019.
The collaborative is “rooted in the truth that we consider that the way you eat, transfer, and assume impacts how you’re feeling,” Timko mentioned.
“We hear from our visitors, for instance, that they really feel higher after coming right here to eat with us,” he mentioned. “We have been lacking ‘the transfer’ and that’s the place Down Beneath comes into the combination.”
Life Alive Culinary Director Leah Dubois mentioned the cafe’s menu focuses on “optimistic consuming.”
“We’re dedicated to sourcing natural greens and fruits and entire grains,” she mentioned.
The Wellness Collaborative says it’s also providing an eight-week “happiness sabbatical,” that includes free meals from the cafe, limitless yoga lessons, different wellness recommendation, and a $2,500 stipend for individuals.
“We’re giving folks the chance for 2 months to simply deep dive into their very own wellness,” Cohen mentioned. “I consider it as a collection of doorways for them to decide on what to stroll by way of. So it’s limitless yoga for 2 months, it’s vitamin counseling, and it’s beautiful, nourishing, Life Alive.”
Based on Cohen, the sabbatical program obtained over 300 purposes.
Timko mentioned the collaborative, which plans to supply reductions to Harvard associates, was drawn to Harvard Sq. due to its “power.”
“There’s a vibrancy right here that’s form of unmatched,” he mentioned.
—Workers author Katherine M. Burstein could be reached at katherine.burstein@thecrimson.com. Observe her on Twitter @kmburstein1.
