CLAY — CORE, a new fast-casual, “active lifestyle” eatery, plans to open in early May at the former location of Jolime Fresh Garden Café in the town of Clay. The opening of CORE at 7265 Buckley Road, its first location, will follow renovation work at the former Jolime Fresh Garden Café, which closed late […]
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CLAY — CORE, a new fast-casual, “active lifestyle” eatery, plans to open in early May at the former location of Jolime Fresh Garden Café in the town of Clay.
The opening of CORE at 7265 Buckley Road, its first location, will follow renovation work at the former Jolime Fresh Garden Café, which closed late last year.
CORE is a company that is separate from Jolime, says John Caveny, co-owner of Jolime and an operating partner of CORE.
John Caveny spoke with CNYBJ on April 14.
The owners want customers to see CORE as a place they can come to get healthy food, says Caveny.
“Everything on the menu is fresh. We don’t have any freezers. Everything’s prepared daily, like our dressings that we make from scratch every day,” he adds.
The group created CORE to offer quick meals for lunch and dinner featuring “unprocessed ingredients that enable peak performance.”
When asked if the Cavenys had plans to transform the existing Jolime locations into CORE locations, Caveny replied “not at the current time.”
The existing Jolime locations operate at 125 E. Jefferson St. in Syracuse and at North Medical across West Taft Road from CORE in Clay.
The eateries are performing “fine on their own,” Caveny contends.
Jolime still offers “comfort” food, such as a bagel with butter, a sandwich that a customer can dip into a cup of broccoli-cheddar soup.
“They’re not necessarily healthy for you,” Caveny notes.
Core operations
CORE will operate in a 4,500-square-foot space, says Caveny, noting he leases the space from Chuck Hafner, Caveny’s uncle.
Hafner operates Chuck Hafner’s Farmers Market & Garden Center, Inc. next door.
CORE will employ between 30 and 40 people, he adds.
Caveny and his wife, Lisa Caveny, joined Larry Wilson and Todd Mansfield in announcing late last year that they would transition the Jolime location to create a “unique active lifestyle” restaurant with plans to add additional locations.
Caveny declined to disclose each owner’s share of the business.
A CORE news release describes Wilson as a “successful entrepreneur and restaurateur” and Mansfield as a “medical-industry veteran.”
Wilson, a Vestal resident who John Caveny has known for more than 25 years, owns more than 25 Moe’s Southwest Grill and Hoopla! Frozen Yogurt locations throughout New York, Pennsylvania, and Maryland, according to the release.
Caveny has also known Mansfield for more than 25 years, he says.
Wilson served as the contractor on the renovation project. Lisa Caveny led the effort in designing the space.
Caveny declined to disclose how much it cost to renovate the space for the CORE eatery, but says it is “self-financed” and a “significant investment.”
How it started
Larry Wilson approached Caveny as he was opening Hoopla! Frozen Yogurt locations, including one in Westchester County.
“And he noticed a line out the door at this place that was opening up another block away. He went to check on it, and it was a concept called Chop’t. There was a line out the door and all people were eating is salads,” says Caveny.
It was a location of the Chop’t Creative Salad Company. It operates eateries in the New York City and Washington, D.C. areas, according to its website.
Similar types of restaurants are “sprouting up” in places such as Boston, Washington, D.C., and other major markets, filling the demand for people who just want to
eat healthy food, says Caveny.
“It’s active people [who] are looking to eat healthy every day,” he adds.
Wilson told the Cavenys he believed upstate New York had an “appetite” for these food products, Caveny recalled.
The Cavenys researched the idea, visiting eateries that are serving healthy foods in places such as Boston and New York City.
They decided to convert Jolime, figuring they had established a footprint; had customers who “appreciate” them for fresh food; and the location near Chuck
Hafner’s garden center with the available produce.
“It just seemed to make sense,” he concluded.
They figured they’d renovate what they already had and use it as a “prototype model,” as opposed to starting something new at a new piece of property.
“If it works here, then maybe we do some more,” he adds.
The Cavenys decided last fall that they had conducted enough research and accumulated enough data to make a decision.
They believed they had examined enough concept models to determine “there’s nothing like this in upstate New York, and we thought if we brought it, there was a really good chance of success.”
The partners chose the name CORE to represent the physical center of a human body “and being centered and being balanced … Food plays a tremendous role with that,” says Caveny.
In the eatery’s logo, the “O” part of CORE is the core of a carrot.
“One of our mantras at CORE is real food for active people. There’s a real performance piece to eating well,” says Caveny.
The eatery’s customers could include someone who’s ended treatments for cancer, someone trying to lose 30 pounds to avoid diabetes, or someone training for a
marathon, he suggests.
“All of those people have one thing in common … The better you eat, the better you feel,” says Caveny.
