by Michael White |
People in Babylon are excited to be getting a Long Island Super Bowls location to call its own.
Owners Laura Duncan and Daneen Colombo know this better than anyone.
“When we’re working in the store people are screaming outside the window, at all times of the day: ‘Oh my God; they’re coming here!” said Colombo.
“People love Long Island Super Bowls,” added Duncan. “They’re addicted. They’ll die for it.”
The plan is to open in the former Subway shop at 21 Cooper Street later this year.
Super Bowls, the island’s seminal açaí bowl franchise, started six years ago in Sayville and expanded to Patchogue in 2016 before the launch of a franchise operation.
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Babylon will be the third Super Bowls location on the South Shore of Suffolk County, with others already open or in the works in Nassau County.
The two women behind the Babylon location, friends from East Patchogue, first considered opening near home in Bellport before looking west.
Their application went to hearing Tuesday night in Babylon Village Hall.
The Village Board appeared to have no concerns with the plans for serving frozen mixed fruit bowls on Cooper Street. The board assured Duncan and Colombo it would issue a decision within two weeks.
So what is açaí, exactly?
It’s pronounced (ah sigh EEE) and it’s a purple berry that grows on palm trees in Central and South America. Because it is not a fruit native to the U.S., it is commonly sold in frozen, freeze-dried or powder form.
An açaí “bowl” begins as a smoothie blended to the thickness of a sherbet. The frozen açaí berry is the key ingredient; it’s typically pureed with almond milk or coconut milk. It’s then topped with a variety of sliced fruit, honey, shaved coconut, nut butter and granola.
“It’s a breakfast and/or lunch, and/or dinner or dessert product,” Duncan told village officials while fielding questions Tuesday night. “It’s filling. You can have it in the morning and you won’t be hungry until lunch.”
Duncan and Colombo — who had been looking to go into business together for about a year — learned about the frozen berry bowls through their eldest daughters.
Those daughters, Paige Duncan, 20, and Sam Colombo, 19, both 2015 graduates of Bellport High School, will be part of the management team once Super Bowls Babylon opens.
They all bought in for the same reasons.
Those reasons are simple.
“It’s fresh. It’s delicious,” said Duncan.
Top: An açaí bowl at Long Island Super Bowls in Patchogue. (GreaterPatchogue/file photo)
