Real Raw Organics Adds Healthy Options to Ocean City, Maryland

Sitting on her Yoloha cork yoga mat, Logan Willey takes a sip of her Bluberry Ginger Kombucha and smiles thinking of the success she’s had this year.

Logan Willey is the owner of Real Raw Organics Kombucha Brewery & Cafe on 34th St. in Ocean City, Md. There’s a growing demand for healthy foods in the resort town and Logan believes this new Kombucha brewery & cafe will help fill that demand.

Background

Logan is a Salisbury native who graduated from Bennett High School in 2009.

Although Logan focuses her time and energy on eating clean and healthy, that wasn’t always the case.

“Once I moved out of my parents house is when I started to eat really healthy,” Logan said. “I researched more nutrition—I wasn’t taught a lot about it, I think it’s more of a generational thing.”

Logan started drinking Kombucha while in college. She studied Interior Design at the Art Institute of Jacksonville, and while in the Sunshine State, enjoyed all the healthy options she was offered.

After graduating, Logan and her boyfriend took a trip to Maui where they found a small batch brewery.

“We got back from Maui and I had a friend in Ocean City who had made it before. He taught me basics, I researched it online, watched videos then started experimenting,” Logan said.

It took her just a few months to master her art of brewing. The first flavors brewed at Real Raw Organics were Blueberry Ginger, Cara Cara Orange and Apple & Acai. Logan says to this day, those have been the most popular.

Growing Demand

When Logan was receiving her undergraduate degree in Florida, she recalls there being healthy, vegetarian options everywhere.

“The area here is a little slow moving. I would go to get something vegetarian and nothing was that filling, there weren’t many gourmet tasting vegetarian options,” Logan said.

Within her first year back, Logan noticed a change.

Green House Deli opened up along with Malia’s Cafe and My Nature, to name a few.

“I worked for My Nature a little bit just helping out,” Logan said. “You wouldn’t believe how many people came in there saying how they would come for vacation and they would have to cook the whole time because there weren’t many options.”

At this point, Logan made it her mission to bring vegatarian and non-vegetarain healthy options to people in the town she loved so much. Real Raw Organics does offer options for meat lovers as well, including the option to add organic turkey and organic ham to any of her specials.

“Everything is organic—it’s a big religious thing to what we are doing here,” Logan added.

Real Raw Organics Expansion

The whole reason Logan started making Kombucha was because of how much she herself drank it.

“I drink it so much. Making it fresh and drinking it within a week of being made is so much better,” Logan said.

At the time, she was taking yoga classes at Zenna Wellness in Berlin, Md. and the owner tried her Kombucha and loved it!

“She said I had to bottle it,” Logan said.

Logan started bottling it using jars she found at Walmart and printing off her own labels. The Kombucha was selling out within a day of delivery to her friend’s shops.

The owner of what was Local Mojo and is now Urban Nectar contacted her asking if she would be interested in having her product at the shop. Next came calls from O.C. Organics and the list began to grow.

“We didn’t contact anybody for the first year—it was awesome,” Logan said. “It had grown so well, I was so happy about it.”

The next step for Logan was working with the Green Grocer. The Green Grocer is a service that allows you to choose a box of customized fruits, veggies, you name it, and have it delivered straight to your doorstep.

“Tourists would pick up my Kombucha, contact me and ask me to ship it but at the time I couldn’t so Green Grocer was great,” Logan said.

She had been looking around for places and several had fell through but she kept her spirits up. She figured when the right place comes along, it will work out.

That is what lead her to her spot on 34th St.

Staying Local

Fully equipped with a a small grocery out front, Kombucha taps and places for yoga and meditating, Real Raw Organics Kombucha Brewery & Cafe is a one stop shop.

During the summer, the shop will have yoga, pilates and meditation classes right outside, all taught by Eastern Shore locals.

The shop also showcases local businesses’ goods including Hunt & Lane, a local furniture store that brings their pieces back from Indonesia, Yoloha’s cork yoga mats, as well as art, body scrubs and more, all created by local people.

 

During the summer there will be outdoor seating as well as a small produce section.

Logan is in the process of remodeling right now which is where her Interior Design Degree is coming in handy.

With all the work the shop has needed to get to where it is now, Logan says her biggest support system has been her dad.

“I couldn’t of done it without him, there’s just so many little things I’ve needed,” Logan said. “He’s been there for me constantly, he’s been very supportive and able to help.”

As far as growing her business and leaving the resort town, Logan doesn’t see that happening anytime soon.

“I love Ocean City so much, I want to grow this town if anything,” Logan said. “I want to just keep growing the local healthy idea and I can feel that people actually want it.”

Real Raw Organics is currently open Tuesday and Wednesday 11 a.m. -3 p.m, Thursday through Sunday 10 a.m.-6 p.m. and closed on Monday. But don’t worry, those hours will change during the summer months! The brewery & cafe will also be delivering.

And now you may wonder, what is the long term plan?

“I would like to get this place up and running, successful, and then open up a second restaurant,” Logan said.

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