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SoCal Smoothie Company opened a new location in Chelsea on June 3 and hopes to provide the local community with a variety of drinks set to a tropical atmosphere. (Reporter photos/Noah Wortham)

By NOAH WORTHAM | Staff Writer

CHELSEA – As a young boy growing up in Newport Beach, California, Allen Corrigan wanted to open up a surf shop called SoCal Surf Co. Years later, that dreams came true but not in the way he expected.

“When you’re a kid you want to be an astronaut or a lawyer or something huge—I wanted to open a surf shop,” Corrigan said. “Well, I moved, and here you can’t open a surf shop because there’s no waves, there’s no beach. When this concept came along and I started thinking about the name, it almost just dropped in my mind.”

SoCal Smoothie Company first opened a location in Mt Laurel in 2021 and now, thanks to help of Corrigan’s new business partner, Mark Peacock, SoCal Smoothie Company has opened a new location in Chelsea.

“Here in Chelsea, there has not been a real good healthy option for smoothies,” Peacock said. “We just decided that was obviously a need.”

SoCal focuses on providing customers with a menu that features a variety of options, including smoothies, fruit teas, Boba teas, energy drinks, refreshers, lattes and frappes.

Since its soft opening on June 3, SoCal Smoothie Company has seen a great response from the local community.

“I’m pretty stoked about the location,” he said. “We don’t even have a sign up right yet, and we’re getting a ton of people in here. I think its only growth from here, but I think that’s a testament to the location. I think we picked the right one.”

SoCal Smoothie Company provides a tropical atmosphere that compliments the taste of its drinks.

“We want to bring you to the beach,” Corrigan said. “If somebody from southern California walks in here, I want them to feel like they’re at home. I feel like it’s a win because I have a lot of people come in and say, ‘This feels like the beach,’ and that’s the aesthetic we’re going for. We want you to feel like you’re not in Chelsea.”

Corrigan expressed that SoCal focuses on providing a high-level customer of service to its customers.

“One of the things we pride ourselves on is our customer service,” he said. “We’re not just a place that wants to serve you a drink. We want to get to know you, and we want to be invested in your lives.”

Another pillar of SoCal’s service involves its focus on cleanliness.

“Everything that touches your lips, I want it to be as clean as possible,” he said. “We want it to taste really good (and) we want it to be as healthy as possible. I don’t like chemicals, I don’t like a bunch of items I can’t pronounce in your food. So, it starts with how clean it is.”

Corrigan explain that all of SoCal’s water is filtered and its ice is double filtered.

“What you can expect is the cleanest, most delicious product that we can put together and serve to somebody,” he said.

SoCal Smoothie Company in Chelsea is located in the same building as the Chelsea Apothecary where the Chelsea Coffeehouse was formerly located, and the owners have honored that history by expanding the menu to include coffee.

“We moved down and we (added) coffees because this used to be a coffee shop,” Peacock said. “We knew there would be a demand inside a sit-down place for coffee. We added coffee (and) Boba tea which has been extremely popular. What we do is we order premium brands that might cost us a little bit more per serving, but the quality of it’s fantastic.”

SoCal plans to not only expand its space in due time but also expand its offerings.

“We’ll be adding something we would be calling ‘SoCal Nights’ where we might be having some live music and (will) stay open three extra hours during the weekend” Peacock said. “I think we’re going to have a place where people can connect, hang out and enjoy.”

Corrigan shared that SoCal is also planning an official grand opening event soon as well as considering the expansion of the menu to feature food.

SoCal plans to eventually open more locations throughout the Birmingham area and beyond.

“We knew that if we could figure out how to do this in a community like Chelsea, we could market it anywhere.” Corrigan said. “(We) want to be the Tesla of smoothies.”

Those interested in learning more may visit the business’s official Facebook page at Facebook.com/socalsmoothiecompany.

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