Rise N’ Shine: The Next Starbucks??

Delia Zavala, Reporter

“Yea, I think this might be the next Starbucks,” said Jose Ayala, a new visitor picking up an order for his girlfriend. 

Rise N’ Shine started off as a Nutrition Café, but now almost a year later, it is Rise N’ Shine Healthy Café. Healthy and nutrition are similar but different. Healthy just means a food that stops you from getting sick and keeps you living longer. Nutritious means a food that fills you with enough nutrients (vitamins, carbohydrates, proteins) your body requires to survive. The reason we are now healthy instead of nutritious is because they give the option to add vitamins and/or even boosters in your teas. 

 Rise N’ Shine first opened in July of 2020, located on 22nd and Central Ave, 2229 S. Central Ave. They are open on Mondays to Saturdays, from 9am-7pm, and on Sundays from 9am-2pm. The owner of Rise N’ Shine is Angelica Salazar, who opened Rise N’ Shine to, “…provide a protein-based café to give the community a healthy option,” said by owner, Angelica. At Rise N’ Shine, the employees make healthy food with Herbalife Protein. Although they use Herbalife products, they are not a Herbalife Café, it is simply Rise N’ Shine. The employees order Herbalife protein and other products using their Herbalife membership to make the food and beverages.  

The Owner, Angelica, hosts a monthly raffle at the end of every month, after hoping she has gained 50+ new customers. For the raffle Salazar pays attention to customers she has seen and has never seen and ask if the new customers would like to fill out a slip of paper, this gives the customers the opportunity to receive online coupons and automatically entered every month’s raffle. For April, they were raffling a Nutribullet, won the raffle, presenting her with the Nutribullet as her prize. 

There are also other Café locations, but they do not share the same owner nor café name, but are linked through Herbalife, friendships, and other business events. The other cafes are similar but slightly different.  

Rise N’ Shine makes food and beverages, such as waffles, shakes, teas, crepes, and even coffee. Employees Isabel Salazar and Delia Zavala, are two Morton East Seniors who are the employees most known by students from Morton, they have been best friends since August of 2019, the start of their Junior Year, and they share the same go-to order from their job at Rise N’ Shine, “I like the Dulce de Leche waffle, with a little Arroz con Leche powder too just to make it sweeter and more flavorful,” said employee Isabel. Salazar and Zavala both enjoy a particular flavored waffle, but they prefer different teas options. “Yes, me and Chabela both like the Dulce de Leche waffle, with strawberries, banana, Dulce de Leche syrup and whip cream, but we like different drinks, Chabela gets the Peach tea with the Mandarin aloe, while I get the Chai tea with Cranberry aloe,” said by, employee and new writer for the Morton Pony Express, Delia Zavala.