In front of Bella Avanti on West Bethel Avenue sits a tiny white building with a red roof. The miniature overhang and subtle Victorian-style detailing around the posts and fascia add to the impression that this is a child's playhouse that ought to be safely tucked away in a backyard, but by some oversight was left exposed to the busy thoroughfare.
This is no playhouse, however. This is Schmoozie's, Muncie's newest culinary addition and the realization of owner Stephanie Vertrees' nearly four-year-long dream.
The little shop opened in June and offers smoothies, coffee, Italian sodas, breakfast sandwiches made to order, combo meals and snacks that range from biscotti to hummus and pita chips.
"My goal is a good, quality product at a good price," Vertrees said.
To that end, Schmoozie's uses only 100 percent fruit juice and fresh frozen fruit in the smoothies. Every inch of the eight-by-twelve-foot space is carefully organized to accommodate these and other ingredients. Shelves holding lids, napkins and flavored syrups line the walls. Stacks of cups sit atop a Nuova Simonelli espresso machine that dominates one corner of the counter, ready to create cappuccinos, lattes and mochas prepared with Ghirardelli chocolate syrup.
Originally from Idaho, Vertrees came to Ball State in 2004 to pursue her master's degree in Organizational Professional Communication and Development. After graduating in 2006, Vertrees took a job teaching in Ball State's prison program. In 2008, she attended the National Communication Association's annual conference in San Diego.
"I came back talking about smoothies," Vertrees said. "And saying we need a smoothie place in Muncie, one of the real smoothie places."
She shelved the idea when she returned, but as the economy worsened and the state continued to make budget cuts to education, Vertrees saw the prison program rapidly decline. She decided to dabble with turning her smoothie dream into a reality.
Schmoozie's began as a food cart on the Ivy Tech campus called The River of Life Café. Vertrees opened it with fellow Ball State alumnus and co-owner Wendy Conner in July 2010. It was hard work that required hours of food preparation, loading and unloading the cart three times a day and dragging it though snow and ice during the winter.
Although most days they sold out of their sandwiches and muffins, the setup did not allow Vertrees to pursue her original vision of making healthy, quality smoothies. When Ivy Tech's spring semester ended, so did River of Life Café.
"It was a great learning experience," Conner said. "It was . . . like anything that you do, it's always bigger, more than you think."
Vertrees and Conner began searching for a place to set up shop. At the top of Vertrees' wish list for a new location? No wheels.
"We thought of this little place and said, nothing's been in there for a while, maybe we can make a go out of it," Vertrees said.
Throughout the years, the tiny property has been a coffee shop, a gelato store and a spaghetti restaurant.
Vertrees and Conner spent weeks perfecting their recipes. The menu includes 12 different smoothies. They vary from the standard strawberry banana to the inventive Oh Brother! which is made with frozen yogurt, milk, bananas, chocolate and peanut butter and named for Conner's brother-in-law who suggested the flavor combination. The most popular flavor is A Smooth No Bake, a blend of peanut butter, chocolate, frozen yogurt and milk.
Customers can create their own special blend with the Truly Yours smoothie which lets them choose from among the three kinds of juices and eight varieties of fruit Schmoozie's keeps in stock. Chocolate can be added for a sweeter smoothie and customers can pick a Schmooze Factor, energy, fiber, immunity or Skinny Jeans (a fat burner), for boosted health benefits.
Despite only being opened for four months, Schmoozie's already has a strong customer base and business continues to grow every week. In the last two weeks, sales have grown 50 percent.
To keep sales rising, Vertrees and Conner are hoping to incorporate new items into the menu suitable for cold weather. They intend to add soups, apple cider and pumpkin flavored smoothies to the menu beginning on September 23, in celebration of the first day of fall.
Schmoozie's also donates 10 percent of its profits to the Women's Freedom Center in Nairobi, Kenya, a ministry that teaches women vocational skills they can use to support and feed their families. Vertrees hopes the business will be a means to bettering the lives of others.
"I saw that this was something I could do to help others," Vertrees said. "My goal is to be an example of a Christian business, doing what's right, doing what's ethical, but also helping provide resources to help others."
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