Pressed Is Now Open in Beacon Hill

Photo by Melissa Ostrow

While you can get a delicious meal at any one of Beacon Hill’s restaurants, there was always one thing lacking: a fresh, healthy, and fast option. Well, that void has now been filled in the historic neighborhood with the opening of Pressed, a juice bar and healthy food shop.

The brainchild of South End couple Ashley Gleeson, 28, and David Clendenin, Pressed has been in the works for more than year. Gleeson says that the duo chose Beacon Hill because it’s a concentrated, real neighborhood. “Everyone knows their neighbors,” Gleeson says, “and there’s a desperate need there for healthy food.”

Gleeson says that it was important to bring a food shop to the neighborhood where someone who is pressed (sorry) for time can grab something healthy fast. What sets them apart from other juice bars around town is the unique ingredients in their food. Many places that make fresh green juices, for example, use the same items, such as apple, spinach, and cucumber, whereas Pressed infuses things like fennel, mint, and lemongrass.

Also unique are the food options. While doing research in New York City, the team met with Joya Carlton, who was the head chef at the wildly popular juice bar and cafe, The Butcher’s Daughter. Carlton, who has been called a “wizard of vegan cuisine,” designed the menu for Pressed and is the juice bar’s food consultant. “There are like 65 juice bars on the island of Manhattan, so we went there for research,” Gleeson says. “[Carlton] created the menu at Pressed.”

And while Gleeson is quick to say that Pressed is not a vegan or even a vegetarian cafe (“We may incorporate chicken or other meat one day,” she says), the current menu is plant-based. That said, one taste of the cashew ricotta and you’ll swear it’s made of cheese. “For us, it’s just about being healthy,” Gleeson says.

Pressed serves breakfast, lunch, and dinner, all made fresh in-house. Other intriguing food options on the mostly local and organic menu include the Jackfruit Bahn Mi (spicy sweet jackfruit, cucumber, pickled carrots, bean sprouts, mixed greens, sesame, and fermented chile mayo on baguette with greens); the Smoked ELT (smoky marinated eggplant bacon, tomato, mixed greens, and basil mayo on seven-grain bread); and the Superfood Sushi (sweet potato, avocado, cucumber, burdock, yacon roots, seasonal pickled vegetables with black rice, and a miso-ginger dipping sauce). Also something to note: The “smoothies” are called “superfood shakes.”

There’s also something called Paletas, which, basically is a fancy, gourmet popsicle. “People are wild about them,” Gleeson says. “And they only have around 100 calories.”

120 Charles Street, pressedboston.com