THINGS ARE GOING SMOOTHIE
Couple opens second outlet of their drinks business in Boynton.
A couple who own a successful smoothie shop in West Palm Beach have expanded the business and opened a second location in Boynton Beach.
Charlie and Renee Thornton opened Smoothie Whirl’d on Saturday at the southeast corner of Old Boynton Road and Military Trail. They’ll host a grand opening Saturday, April 21.
“Smoothie Whirl’d’s ‘bread and butter’ is fruit and green smoothies,” said Charlie Thornton. (You won’t find any bread or butter here.)
“We have fantastic ingredients. All natural fruit. A lot of fresh squeezing. We do wheatgrass shots sourced locally, ginger shots, acai bowls,” Charlie said while rattling off the menu.
The Thorntons opened the West Palm Beach location, also on Military Trail, in the summer of 2012.
Charlie Thornton managed several local businesses, such as Jamba Juice and Honey-Baked Ham, and the company he was last at downsized when the economy crashed.
“I said, ‘If I could do it for somebody else, I could do it for me,’” he recalled.
He spent his life savings to open the West Palm Beach store.
It wasn’t easy at first. Charlie Thornton had to work about 110 hours per week for about two years to keep afloat. And in 2015, Renee Thornton was diagnosed with Diffuse large B cell lymphoma, stage 4.
The good news?
She’s been cancer-free since August 2015, Charlie Thornton said.
And, the couple bounced back.
They found an investor to help open the Boynton location, which is near a YMCA and Planet Fitness whose customers — the fitness crowd — are Smoothie Whirl’d’s target demographic.