Acai Cafe Opens in Bay View
Oakberry's first Midwestern location now serving acai bowls, smoothies and more.
Oakberry Acai, 2142 S. Kinnickinnic Ave. Photo taken May 22, 2025 by Sophie Bolich.
After a sunny four-mile route, participants in last weekend’s City Limits Run Club were met with high fives and acai samples from Oakberry, which celebrated its grand opening May 24. Later that morning, the new cafe at 2142 S. Kinnickinnic Ave. welcomed its first 100 guests with complimentary bowls.
Bay View‘s Oakberry, led by Tyler Schmitz and Vanessa Durand, is the first Midwestern location for the global chain with some 600 stores in 35 countries, which sell a health-focused menu of acai bowls and smoothies with a wide variety of topping options.
Guests can customize their own acai, or choose from signature creations like the Crunchy Bowl, layered with chia pudding, granola, strawberries, blueberries and cacao nibs; the Fruity Bowl, with granola, banana, strawberries and passion fruit; and the Tiger Bowl, featuring whey protein, granola, peanut butter and strawberries.
The cafe also sells acai-based smoothies in flavors like Coffee Punch, Blue Fairy and Zen Matcha. Other menu items include energy bars and bites, protein balls, cold-pressed juices, wellness shots and 32-ounce “buckets” of acai puree for at-home bowls.
Oakberry, which offers both dine-in and carryout service, occupies 890 square feet on the ground floor of KinetiK. It fills the building’s final vacant commercial space, which is also home to Paloma Taco and Tequila, 17th Ward Cocktail Lounge, Roll Up, Mochinut, Ni Burmese, JB Nails & Spa and the optometry clinic Eyes on the Lake. Just over a year ago, most of the first-level storefronts were still empty.
The wellness-focused cafe joins a wave of new juice and smoothie bars across the city. Baya Bar, an acai shop and cafe, opened in April at 2220 N. Prospect Ave. Meanwhile, Tropical Smoothie Cafe stores are proposed to open at 626 E. Ogden Ave. and 2575 N. Downer Ave.
Yash Patel, a franchisee for Tropical Smoothie Cafe, said he’s noticed more diners seeking out healthier food options — a growing trend in the aftermath of the pandemic.
“We saw a lot of people make that shift towards healthier food,” he told Urban Milwaukee in discussing plans for his upcoming cafe.
Oakberry is open Sunday through Wednesday from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m., Thursday from 10 a.m. to 9:30 p.m. and Friday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m.
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