(Photo courtesy of Juice Press)

Prepare to add another New York City restaurant to the crowded D.C. healthy eating market. Organic, plant-based food and beverage retailer Juice Press is heading south to open its first D.C. location later this summer inside Union Station (50 Massachusetts Ave. NE).

Juice Press currently has more than 68 in stores between the New York area and Boston, growing rapidly since its founding in 2010. The grab-and-go concept expects to appeal to D.C.’s diet-conscious and busy customers—though it’ll face competition in a city full of vegetable-based fast-casual and juice options like Beefsteak, JRINK Juicery, and Sweetgreen.

Despite the generic name, Juice Press is out to be more than just a juice bar. It makes more than 100 products a day for its stores, from soups to kale chips and almond milk. The D.C. location will focus mainly on preparing made-to-order smoothies (with custom boosters from coconut meat to coffee beans), acai bowls, and soups on-site. Other packaged goods like energy bars and nuts will be available to grab-and-go.

The shop says it focuses on organic produce as well as stocking products with the shortest possible shelf lives for maximum freshness.

A sample menu shared with DCist features items like “$&%*ing” Genius Blueberry Protein or Hawaiian Healer smoothies and bowls and soups like Egyptian red lentil and butternut squash and quinoa.

Juice Press got its start in the Lower East side of Manhattan. Chairman Michael Karsch says the brand strives for an “edgier” vibe and a philosophy that steers away from the hippy Birkenstock wearing or prissy, high-end stereotypes of plant-based eating.

“That’s resonated where people feel like they’re being cool when they come in, rather than making it seem like a very snobby type of environment,” he says.

Karsch says the D.C. expansion has been on the shop’s radar for a long time. He even considered opening in D.C. before Boston, but chose to go north due to a college connection and familiarity with the city. Plus, he found out that quarterback Tom Brady really loved Juice Press.

“I was a little bit biased by that, and so I decided to open a store by his house,” he says.

He sees a lot of similarities between the two cities—with one big difference that should appeal to cold juice and smoothie drinkers.

“The weather is better in D.C. than in Boston,” he says.

Of course, far more people come to Union Station to pass the time between trains than to feel hip and cool. But it’s not the first Juice Press location in a more corporate part of town. It’s Grand Central Station location in New York City is one of its top performing sites. And Union Station is a hugely busy transportation hub as well.

Karsch is hopeful that the energy of the Union Station location will resonate with travelers, politicians, and anyone who passes through.

“We just find that everyone wants to feel young and feel like they have energy,” he says.

While this is the only planned location at the moment, Juice Press does plan to offer food and beverages at the D.C.-area Equinox gyms in the future.