Brady Street Blends brings ‘good energy’ to Davenport

Karlee Cleary wants people to “sip local.” That is, she wants Quad Citizens and visitors to the community to enjoy a vast variety of healthy energy drinks, lit teas, shakes, protein coffee and many other drinks and food at her new business – Brady Street Blends, located at 423 Brady St. in downtown Davenport. And […]

Karlee Cleary wants people to “sip local.” That is, she wants Quad Citizens and visitors to the community to enjoy a vast variety of healthy energy drinks, lit teas, shakes, protein coffee and many other drinks and food at her new business – Brady Street Blends, located at 423 Brady St. in downtown Davenport. And if all goes according to her plans, the Brady Street storefront will be the first of many new health drink-centered businesses across the region.

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“I love the downtown area. I love the big windows in this place. I love that parking is easy around here,”  Ms. Cleary, the business owner, said about her new storefront business. Her business – located near the busy Brady Street-Fourth Street intersection and close to the new downtown MLK Park –  had its official grand opening Saturday, May 3. The storefront is decorated with its logo on the front window with its unofficial motto: “Sip Local.”  Even though the storefront has been open only a few days, it is off to a good start. Ms. Cleary said Brady Street Blends has been doing good business and getting many positive comments from new customers who like the store’s drink and food menu. “We offer healthy options. … There’s always a demand for them,” she added. “Let’s crush this week with positive vibes, good energy, and all the clean caffeine, protein your body needs to feel unstoppable,” a recent post on the Brady Street Blends Facebook page read. Ms. Cleary said customers like those healthy, natural drink options, such as the lit teas offered on the menu. She said the drinks offer people natural pick-me-up energy, proteins, are low on sugars and provide healthy options that they don’t get at other beverage businesses. Here’s a look at the drink menu at Brady Street Blends:

• Lit teas: Some of them include the Bikini Bottom with blue raspberry and pineapple; Pixie Dust with pink Starburst cotton candy; Island Vibes with coconut mango; and Blue Hawaiian with blue blast coconut. Ms. Cleary’s favorite is a lit tea called Arctic Blast with blue raspberry  and blackberry. “That’s my go-to drink,” she added.
• Healthy shakes: Some of them include the Fat Elvis with chocolate, peanut butter and banana; Banana Cream Pie with vanilla and banana; Scotcharoo with vanilla, butterscotch, peanut butter and chocolate; and Cake Batter with vanilla, white chocolate and cheesecake.
• Protein teas: Some of them include the Tropicana with pina colada and orange; Black Pearl with blue raspberry and grape; Purple Rain with watermelon, blue blast, cherry and vanilla; and Fruit Rollup with cherry and strawberry.
• Protein coffees: Some of them include: the Iced Coffee with caramel macchiato and mocha; the Signature with peanut butter cups, sea salt mocha, caramel brownie and samo; and the Float, with caramel brownie, sugar cookie and s’mores.
• Caffeine-free drinks: Some of them include the Better Days drink with mandarin orange; the Spring Refresher with peach mango; and the Collagen Refresher with strawberry orange.

But it’s not just drinks on the menu. The startup business has its own “Protein Bakery” that offers goodies, such as protein balls, donuts, parfaits and more. “They are a huge hit. … We’ve done a ton of business with those items,” said Ms.Cleary. In addition to the food and drinks, Brady Street Blends has been making fans with its homey atmosphere. (The new business is located in the former home of El Cortez Cantina.) That interior now features a couch, bar stools, a bar area to sit and enjoy healthy drinks, and plenty of space for people to gather for meetings. Also, its interior walls are painted a deep red shade – a leftover feature from the El Cortez bar. She said that in the future that deep red color might have to be repainted But in the immediate future, she has bigger plans for the business. Ms. Cleary wants to host meetings and gatherings in the storefront, and have a seasonal menu with different drinks and food items being offered at different times of the year. But the big news is this – Brady Street Blends could be one of the first of many healthy drink-centered businesses in the region. She hopes to help open at least 20 other drink businesses in the Quad Cities in the coming years. Perhaps six or seven of those businesses may open by the end of this year. When those new businesses open, Ms. Cleary said she may be the owner, part owner or an advisor who helps launches the new shops and teaches others how to operate the new storefronts. Ms. Cleary said those businesses are not part of a franchise deal, but will have a partnership that will feature the same drink and food menus at each location, but likely have different business names. For instance, one of those businesses in the partnership that has already opened is Pearl City Nutrition, 305 E. Second St., Muscatine, Iowa. She added that there are currently about 15 of the healthy drink businesses already open across Iowa and Wisconsin. She said that the time is right to introduce more drink shops to the community because many people in the QC are craving healthy options when it comes to shakes, teas and coffees. “We are the Quad Cities’ most healthy, newest, most fun hangout place,” she added. Brady Street Blends, which has three employees, is open 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. on weekdays, and 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. on weekends. It can be reached at (563) 307-0804.