Friends and colleagues Juan Vergara and Edward Padilla have opened Helvetica Juice Bar and Café in Lakewood, which offers authentic Latin American juices and cuisine with a Latin twist. The team hopes the space will become a gathering place for Cleveland’s graphic designers and creative class.

The café, which is named after a popular font used by designers, is located at 11823 Detroit Avenue across from Virginia Marti College of Art and Design.

“We’ve run out of food twice already,” says Vergara, who also co-owns Barroco Grill, a popular Columbian restaurant on Madison Avenue in Lakewood, with his father Carlos. “We got a huge turnout when we first opened. Now we know better!”

The café’s signature juices are made from pulp imported from Latin America. Other items include a plantain sandwich with beef and a vegan zucchini salad.

“What I did was take every juice from my childhood, very popular drinks in South America, that are different and people haven’t heard of up here,” says Vergara. “I put them all on the menu. We make them from ice, pulp, water and sugar. We also use agave syrup and soy milk. We make them so they’re almost like smoothies.”

Vergara and Padilla are both artists and graphic designers, so they designed the place as a hangout for creative types. “There’s really no place in Cleveland that’s designated for graphic designers,” says Vergara, who offers a library of graphic design books in the café and showcases successful local businesses on the walls.

Of the location near the Cleveland border, Vergara says, “The eastern end of Lakewood needs some love right now. With downtown becoming redeveloped, it is working its way out from the inside. So I thought, what better way to start?”

Source: Juan Vergara
Writer: Lee Chilcote