Going through mental and physical repercussions of overly-restrictive approach to health, I feel responsible to contribute to bettering our society, for our future children. With the growing role of social media in our lives, there is so much suppression in everyone of us, that I aim to actualize, collectively. And I’m not asking for freedom to do so. Fueled by the frustration from diet culture, and the lack of healthy offerings that are truly satisfying, The Bowl One was born. Its mission; to break the rules pressuring everyone from 12 year old girls deadlifting in the gym, to 40 year olds struggling with a plethora of eating disorders. It’s time to evolve, by making eating fun, and personal. The Bowl One, goes beyond restaurant, its a lifestyle- a bold one.
The Bowl One is growing into a platform, where real health actualizes into convenience.
Growing up in this day and age, we are bombarded with society’s pre-defined standards. There’s nothing wrong with standards, except that everyone has a different standard from a cultural, physical, emotional and physiological perspective. One of the many over-stated social pressures that influenced a series of events and decisions in my life have been general health. Over time, my journey, just like so many other’s, proved health doesn’t have a static meaning. It also becomes increasingly difficult to make healthy food choices when you have a ‘busy’ lifestyle. Fixing this, is the single most powerful motivation behind The Bowl One. I want to redefine health through an online platform that rebuilds our ordering habits by allowing scheduled and customized AND gourmet food.
What is the USP of The Bowl One?
TBO merges customization and convenience into one gourmet setting. TBO will be the bold end of decision-dilemma in scrolling down delivery apps and getting overwhelmed with choice overload. TBO’s e-platform has prescheduled and customized food orders. We spoil subscriber with our loyalty program and perks, and give them their own personal QR code.
On the other hand, our food thinks outside the box, its cuisine-less menu brings a whole new indulgent experience in what we normally consider “off-limits”. Our platform makes your life easy. Our food makes you forget about the ‘die’ in diets. How many more USP’s could you want out of life?
What are your views on a healthy lifestyle?
Healthy is a fluid state of well-being. What that means is being in tune and agreement with what both your body and mind need, depending on the person, the phase in life you are in, or just simply whether or not you feel like having a fat cheeseburger at 10am, followed by a detox smoothie. What I mean is, be conscious of what you put in your body, but make sure it doesn’t become counter productive towards how your mind is feeling. Kale is great, but body positivity feels even better. Work out hard, kill it in the gym, eat good, but make sure it feels good.
The Bowl One is more than just another restaurant – How?
The Bowl One has a shamelessly bold twist on everything. It transforms limiting factors into indulgence with homemade goodies like black bean brownies, and put the fun back into eating where it belongs, like sugar-free soft serve ice cream. But this is just a stepping stone to a revolution. The Bowl One is the solution to the two reasons why maintaining healthy habits is hard, it eliminates:
1. Removal of continual decision making
The e-platform essentially lets the customer think once about their future meals. Thereby eliminating the need to maintain healthy decisions. The scheduling feature on the platform lets you redeem your credit in the account by deciding when and where you want your customized / set meals of goodness.
2. Leniency towards what we think we ‘should’ not eat
The menu is engineered to break the basic rules. We encapsulate balsamic vinegar in bubbles to top our avo toast with. We spent months formulating a sugar-free soft serve ice cream, and we top it off with our homemade ‘neatella’ chocolate sauce. This removes the psychological power of forbidden items, that sometimes trigger over-compensating behavior like binge eating.
What is the experience that you want customers to have when they visit the restaurant?
The store itself is meant to be an experience. It’s inspiration? What we normally call cheats, are displayed next to our nut pressor machine, which you can dip and try; like the neatella which is made from cocoa and hazelnut butter for example. Or you can take one of our signature smoothie bowls or soft serve ice cream and move along with a movable tray to top it up with fruits, crunchy healthy bites and finally drizzle with our homemade sauces. The restaurant’s biggest statement is the bar, where you pick a base; protein, veggies, crunch it up and drizzle. Sound familiar? It is, but rather than your normal Poke you can make Mexican bowls, and we don’t mind making you wait for your freshly grilled chicken or newly tossed salmon fillet cubes. Yes you see your BYO being made but its fresh, so you can wait and sit on a cool swing we made you in the meantime. The restaurant is relentlessly trying to stand out. From the employees that are pushed to show their personality, to the speaker swing that is intended to be a non-judgmental place of speaking up about what matters to us. All of such are complementary, to the theme of stepping outside of norms, and breaking the status quo. The restaurant is shameless from its controversial self-ordering system, its uncommon meal combos, its outrageous colors in each dish to its nut butter flavors.
Your tips for healthy eating:
I’m not going to give you magical weight loss secret. I think healthy is a state that is sustainable for life, not just for a summer body.
So make it simple and easy to follow: Try but not too hard. Get yourself educated, but, don’t over do the facts, and obsess about the percentage of antioxidants in a goji berry, half of it probably got lost in packaging, on its way from across the world to you. Define your health, and make it work for you.
Let me know what you think,
Sheri
Introducing The Bowl One: Dubai’s latest bold and boundary-breaking restaurant concept, putting the fun back into healthy eating
Inspired by a passion for healthy, delicious food, that is good for the mind, body and soul, The Bowl One is the boldest new concept on the block, created to put the fun back into eating. An inclusive and supportive hub located in brand new Index Tower Mall, The Bowl One serves a mix of salads, smoothie bowls, sandwiches and their protein famous soft serve for breakfast, lunch and dinner.
With a mission to change what we think health means, The Bowl One was conceptualised by Sheri Mehryar and was dreamt up from a lifetime of trying to get the right balance between restriction and freedom when it comes to food. It’s a no brainer that explicit freedom is important, but do we ever consider how much freedom we are truly free to enjoy inside of our own heads? Are we aware of how much we restrict ourselves, consciously and subconsciously? We’re surely aware of the external pressures that limit our way of thinking, but to what extent have we consciously protected our minds from them? Going through mental and physical repercussions of overly-restrictive approach to health, Sheri felt deeply responsible to contribute to bettering the society, for the future generations of children – step in, The Bowl One.
Sheri comments ‘Growing up in this day and age, as a girl, we are bombarded with society’s pre-defined standards. There’s nothing wrong with standards, except that everyone has a different standard from a cultural, physical, emotional and physiological perspective. One of the many over-stated social pressures that influenced a series of events and decisions in my life have been general health. Over time, my journey, just like so many others, proved health doesn’t have a static meaning. Indeed, too much health becomes dangerously unhealthy. This is the single most powerful motivation behind my mission. Being a perfectionist, getting abs was an easy job. Question is; how? And at what cost?’
Crafted to change the health industry’s status quo, Sheri created The Bowl One to break rules – from the physical ones such as how we place orders, to the conceptual ones like putting sugar-free protein ice cream in between a brioche hot dog topped with healthy Nutella and salted peanuts, or having vegan truffle parmesan fries with your kale Caesar salad. It’s time to cut the crap and replace it with the real deal. The Bowl One transforms limiting factors into indulgence using scratch made food – the concept also simplifies sustainable, long-term health – the kind that lasts a lifetime, inclusive of mental and physical wellbeing. Sheri continues ‘There are many reasons for doing this, the main one is to create a REAL and positive impact on our busy lives, on our future kids who will be under even more pressure to conform to societal standards ( and could probably use this as a reality check), and finally an impact on our perception towards what health truly means. That is something that can only be defined by YOU and you only. So you customize your sugar-free sundae with salted caramel, I won’t judge, I’m just here to make it happen”
Showcasing cuisine-less food, all dishes available on the extensive menu are healthy, nutritious and balanced yet super delicious. The restaurant’s biggest statement is the bar, where you can pick a base; either one of the signature smoothie bowls or the protein soft serve. From here, it’s time to top with fruits, crunchy bites and finally drizzle with one of the homemade sauces. The restaurant is unique in many ways, from its controversial self-ordering system and its uncommon meal combos to its outrageous colour in each dish and its nut butter flavours. Other signatures include the macadamia shakshuka, bon avoyage avo toasts, the killer house salmon, The Bowl One chicken and fala-fella bowls plus takeaway goodies such as kale chips, seed crackers, granola bites and black bean brownies.
The Bowl One will also be launching their own subscription and food delivery programme over the coming months, offering people a healthy yet delicious meal plan solution, perfect for those who are ready to commit to a health and sustain it! The process will be super simple – subscribe to a plan, choose your meals around your schedule and wait for boldness. After all fortune does favour the bold.
At the end of your day, you can have both salad and fries – you don’t always have to pick one or the other. Indulge in your health and put the fun back into eating with The Bowl One.