Smoothie King coming to DeKalb

DeKALB – Smoothie King is hoping to take the throne as the leading source for smoothies in DeKalb when the popular chain opens for business as early as October.

Located at 1015 W. Lincoln Highway, Unit B, the estimated 1,500-square-foot establishment will join a plaza that already is home to Starbucks and Baba’s Steak & Lemonade near the Northern Illinois University campus.

“We’re just excited to come to DeKalb, especially with NIU being there and all the students,” owner Byogesh Patel said.

Patel said choosing to set up shop in DeKalb made sense on multiple levels.

“NIU is there. It’s a great town, a growing town,” Patel said. “We thought this would fit. Our goal is for Smoothie King to have healthy smoothies, healthy options. A lot of the college kids, the high school kids – they’re all getting into fitness. It goes with what our mission is: trying to get everyone to drink a healthy smoothie with great flavors.”

At Smoothie King, Patel said peanut butter reigns supreme for many.

“If you love peanut butter, that’s one of our popular smoothies,” Patel said.

If you’re more health-conscious, Patel said Smoothie King has options for you, as well.

In total, Patel owns and operates seven Smoothie King locations in Illinois, including in Downers Grove, Westmont, two in Naperville, New Lenox and Belvidere.

Patel said he hopes to have the DeKalb location up and running soon.

“We started construction, but we haven’t got a firm date yet,” Patel said. “We’re planning on – if the construction doesn’t have a major holdback or anything – hopefully the first week of October or second week, but that all depends.”

Patel said the DeKalb establishment will follow many Smoothie King locations in a similar fashion.

“It’s [an] open concept, so you can actually see starting from the register going all the way toward the end, when we give the customer the smoothie,” Patel said. “Everything is open. That’s our main goal is having them feel the environment, the atmosphere. They know what’s going in their smoothie. They can see how we’re making it – all the ingredients we have out, all the protein powders out there.”

Patel said Smoothie King is big on building and maintaining relations within the community.

“Getting involved in community is a big mission for us, especially us with the franchisee,” he said. “We like to get involved in the community, get to know everyone, know what’s going on and help the community out. We don’t know exactly what we’re going to do, but the closer we are to opening, the more we’ll get involved with the [university]. But we will definitely have something that we’ll do with NIU that helps everyone out.”

Once it opens for business, Smoothie King will operate from 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. Monday through Friday, from 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. Saturdays, and from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Sundays.

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