Landon and Kat Eckles moved their young family from the Northeast to the Lake Norman area last year, and this spring the entrepreneurial couple opened Clean Juice in Birkdale Village.
The Eckles, parents of four, keep the company’s social media accounts full of cheery photos—customers and babies posed next to bottles of dark red beet-and-spinach combos; the Eckles sharing a smooch next to the Clean Juice logo on their eighth wedding anniversary. Inside the juice bar’s airy space are chalkboards updated daily with messages reminding customers that ingredients are organic and raw either all of the time or whenever possible, “NOT SOME OF THE TIME.”
On a recent weekday morning, several women leaving an exercise class filed into line behind a man who’d ordered ahead online and was worried about leaving his dog outside while picking up his drink. A customer quietly took a bowl of water to the dog, and an employee poured finished juice into Clean Juice’s signature cup design, bearing 3 John 1-2: “Dear friend, I hope all is well with you and that you are as healthy in body as you are strong in spirit.”
When construction began on Birkdale 15 years ago, towns north of Charlotte were already passing ordinances to minimize a sprawl that would continue to worsen. Birkdale’s exit off of Interstate 77, number 25, leads to Sam Furr Road, which today has seven lanes near the entrance to the village.
To read the rest of the article, visit this link.
