The Protein Foundry is the newest hotspot in Park City, with an array of choices from acai bowls, toast, and protein smoothies. 

As the Fort Union location will be hitting its four year anniversary in January, Park City’s has only been open for roughly 2 weeks, and continues to thrive. 

While their other locations include Draper and West Jordan, the business was searching to expand, and Park City was an ideal location to the owners. 

The Prospector had the chance to meet with Jared, the manager of both the Park City and Fort Union Protein Foundries.

When asked to elaborate on their criteria, it was stated that Park City checked all the boxes; “We look for community centered places, and just geography there is barriers where Park city is Park City,” Jared said. “We knew it would be a great recreational town. We look for locations where there are lots of gyms, and Park City fits that.”

The menu includes a variety of protein shakeouts and toasts, but their acai bowls have given them their infamous reputation. 

What is an acai bowl? As explained by Jared, “Acai is like an unsweetened blueberry on steroids from the Amazon, it’s so low on sugar, so when you pick it, it doesn’t go on the shelf because it won’t last long. So, we blend it into a puree with other frozen fruit, topped with fresh fruit. All natural and organic!”

There are over 10 choices of bowls, the majority being acai, other choices include pitaya bowls. Pitaya, better known as dragon fruit, is a bitter tasting fruit, which is blended into a puree as well and later topped with fresh fruit. Although just as tasty, their acai bowls have seemed to be more popular.

With roughly five types of acai bowls ranging from protein oritneed, to fun and fruity, their most popular bowl is The Rio. This bowl consists of a standard acai base, topped with organic hemp granola, bananas, strawberries and blueberries. The simplicity of this bowl is what makes it not only a customer favorite, but a Protein Foundry classic. 

While the majority of their orders are the acai bowls, they also have a variety of choices of toasts, all the way to protein shakes. Other popular items from those categories include the Cali avocado toast with cottage cheese, and the Acai Kicker, a popular protein acai shake. 

Since their opening, the Protein Foundry has been a popular meet up for high school students. “The Monday we opened, it was an early release day. So we kinda got swamped,” Jared states. 

Even a majority of their staff are high schoolers; they have 8 teenage employees that go to PCHS. Though both high schoolers and college students were the original target, they are quickly expanding to all ages. 

This spectrum of ages works extremely well in Park City, and helps the Protein Foundry promote their “healthy living” values to the consumers. They pride themselves off these values.

“We strive to connect as a group of employees, connect with our community and our customers,” Jared explained. “…Like we just don’t want to sacrifice any quality. Just polished professionalism, interacting very well with customers and we keep [the restaurant] very nice and clean. Polished, quality, and connection, those are our values.”

So far, the Protein Foundry has been thriving. With a diverse customer pool, they’re seemingly always busy. Their popular menu options, ranging from acai bowls to toast, paves a path for a bright future in Park City.