A Brazilian beach in a bowl: Palmetto Superfoods dishes out açaí
6Palmetto Superfoods is bringing Bay Area’s açaí lovers back to the source: Brazil. The local business is dishing out a healthy, sweet treat and a commitment to authenticity.
Açaí is a deep purple fruit native to South America and has long been a staple in Brazilian diet. Today’s beloved açaí bowl first became popularized in Brazil by freezing, mashing and topping the açaí fruit with fruit, granola, nuts and more. As their popularity soared, açaí bowls earned worldwide recognition as a healthy sweet treat packed with antioxidants.
The story of Palmetto Superfoods traces back to a local, family-owned Brazilian restaurant, Cafe de Casa. San Francisco native Charles Lee not only fell in love with the restaurant's food but especially its açaí.
"He found it to be the purest and most flavorful açaí he’s had from around the world," Chief Marketing Officer Hessam Shirmohammadi said. "So, he brought [the restaurant's owners] Amanda and her sister Thaís -- who's also a part of our team -- and myself together to create what is now Palmetto Superfoods."
The health benefits of açaí motivated the team to run with the idea.
"The idea of putting a healthy option, a better treat on the market for someone that is a long-time ice cream lover," Shirmohammadi said. "Now they can get something that has better health benefits at a more affordable cost, and it does you better."
Chief of Açaí Amanda Moreira said açaí typically offered in the United States differs from the treat she grew up with in Brazil.
"It's blended with juices, extremely sweet and there's no taste of açaí at all," Moreira said.
But, Palmetto’s açaí tastes like home; "[It] tastes similar to what they serve as a sorbet in Brazil," Moreira said. Palmetto receives açaí pulp directly from Brazil to eventually be served at one of their Bay Area locations.
The four co-founders opened their first location in San Francisco’s Inner Richmond in 2019. Today, they have five locations across the Bay. They offer a range of bowls, smoothies and toppings to choose from.
Amongst all the highlights of their journey, Shirmohammadi is proudest of the company’s perseverance through the pandemic. Instead of letting the virus halt production, Palmetto instead "doubled down."
"We partnered with local hospitals and local nurses to keep them fed, keep them energized," he said. "We went out there and double downed on catering because people couldn’t come out, so we were delivering stuff to people."
Shirmohammadi said this energy brought the group together, laid a foundation for the future and built the mindset of, "If we made it through that, we can make it through anything."
The company has no plans to "slow down," Shirmohammadi said. Palmetto recently launched an official rewards app, and an East Bay and Southern California expansion is in the works.
Shirmohammadi said the customer support has been "tremendous" and every individual is appreciated. To best serve their consumers, Palmetto strives to provide opportunities to experience the brand in different ways.
"When you walk into a Palmetto Superfoods restaurant, you feel and you taste what it could be like if you’re on a beach in Brazil, and if we can continue to instill that DNA into everything that we do as a brand, we feel like we’ve done good for the consumer," Shirmohammadi said.
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