Earlier this year, Jay Essadki stumbled across an old juicer and cassette tapes from a health guru while cleaning out a neighbor’s garage. A convert to the juice movement, Essadki wants to introduce customers to its numerous health benefits with his new juice bar and health food shop, The Liquid Menu, which opened last month in Mountain View. He sat down with Metro to discuss his new venture.

How did The Liquid Menu come about?
I’m helping a neighbor clean up her garage and she hands me this juicer box with these tapes from the ’80s by Jay Kordich. One morning I put the tape into my car and started listening and he was really passionate about juicing. In March, I didn’t even know it had become such a movement. For me this wasn’t going to be some juice bar, it was going to be The Liquid Menu.

How is the menu arranged at The Liquid Menu?
The first thing we tell people is that we don’t mix fruit and vegetable juices. We break our menu into two sides: fruits and vegetables. Fruit juices are rapidly absorbed and are the energizers and cleansers for the body. The Vegetables are to build and repair. Different vegetables have different vitamins and will go in certain organs, in the right combinations. And as a chef this is exciting, it’s almost like magic formulas, very educated and purposeful recipes.

What is the health benefit of juicing compared to just incorporating more fruits and vegetables into your diet?
All of the nutrients are in the juice. Take one of our drinks for example, it may have a pound of carrots, another half pound of apples—you have all of that nutrition in a glass. [Comparatively], how long would that take to not only eat those raw ingredients, but then digest and have your body absorb those nutrients?

What do you want your customers to experience from The Liquid Menu?
You can be “full” as in your stomach has expanded and can no longer eat, or you can be full in the sense that you have nourished your body with necessary nutrients. If you get genuinely fresh extracted juice with the right superfoods, your body can get all the nutritional value that is needed. I’m a chef, of course I understand the pleasures of a nice meal. It’s all about balance. Any addition of fresh vegetables into your daily diet will benefit you. You’re not going to get everyone to start eating organic broccoli. Let’s start by taking out the bad and simply putting in the good. I’d rather you have like two pounds of inorganic carrot juice over a cheeseburger, right? Let’s have a glass of juice per day like we have a pizza per week.

The Liquid Menu 650 Castro St, Ste. 130 Mountain View, CA 94041. (650) 282-5701