Standing tall in a family of meat-eaters, Kelsey Vasileff was 10 when she made her announcement:

I'm going vegetarian.

"It was the first little thing that introduced me to health," she remembers. "I gave it up for Lent."

It was not the most popular of announcements. (Although her sister, already a vegetarian, cheered.) Her parents had a garden at their Chattanooga home, which would prove influential later in her life, but, vegetarianism was a lonely road. Mustering some internal, even fiery, independence, she held her own against a culture that, in the late 90s, saw vegetarianism as either unAmerican or unhealthy or both.

She just ... knew.

It was this felt-sense of the immediate and ongoing way that food affects the mind, body and spirit. Kelsey knew in her bones (and bloodstream): you really are what you eat.

"If you can start with a clean body, you can get everything else on track," she said.

She spent time in Yellowstone before returning to Chattanooga to major in environmental science and biology at Univ. of Tennessee at Chattanooga.

That's when she began blending produce into juices out of her apartment kitchen for her mom, sister and next-door neighbor.

Then, friends.

Then, more friends, more neighbors.

Then, strangers.

"There was a line outside my apartment," she said.

Years later, the line continues to form. Kelsey owns Southern Squeeze, the ever-popular vegetarian juice bar in Riverview.

One reason folks love Southern Squeeze?

Kelsey's resolute North Star focus on health, wholeness and no-shortcuts or  side deals. What you see is what you get. Kelsey's ingredients are like her: honest. And in a world of compromises and confusing ingredients we can't pronounce, it's reassuring to have someone, and somewhere, you trust.

A nearly lifelong vegetarian, then vegan, she spent two years considering whether to include eggs on the menu.

Two. Years.

"People who’ve always been our customers care about quality and what we put into bodies," she said. "It’s why we exist. It's what keeps me going."

Another reason?

It tastes so phenomenally good; usually, I wish I had a pony keg - not just 16 ounces - of Southern Squeeze juices.

A third reason?

She sources from local farmers.

Abundantly, devotedly, generously sources.

Like eggs from Sequatchie Cove Farm.

And apples from Wheeler's Orchard and Vineyard.

And bread from Niedlov's Bakery & Cafe.

And micro-greens from Ron and Cynthia Shaffer at Red Clay Farms.  

"We grow 12 different micro-greens," Ron said.

He's got 20 trays under grow lights devoted to Southern Squeeze.

"That's red amaranth," he said. "It's a grain with neon pink stripes. It tastes like beets. It's among the top five most nutritious."

She launched Southern Squeeze in 2014, 10 years ago last April. She'd been teaching yoga, following a strict vegan diet yet was troubled by digestive and heartburn issues.

So, she refined her approach.

"A very clean diet, cleansing, healing my body," she said.

She looked around. High and low. Near, far. Couldn't find any restaurant or juice bar in the city that could offer high-quality, locally-sourced juices.

"We need this in Chattanooga," she realized.

So, at 27, she made her next announcement:

I'm opening an organic, vegan juice bar.

Today, Kelsey, 37, is among the top local leaders who source from regional farmers.

"I was passionate about the product and how it made me feel and how it helped other people," she said. "Quality has always been one of the highest priorities."

From the beginning, her menu has reflected this.

We are on a mission to provide a menu that is based on an anti-inflammatory diet, their website proclaims. Organic. Plant Focused. House made from scratch. Low-glycemic. No seed oils. Minimal gluten and dairy from only the highest quality sources.

"It was what the people wanted," she said.

Yes, juices are $11. Back in the kitchen, the industrial juicer gobbles up four-to-six pounds of vegetables, Kelsey says.

Per. Juice.

"This machine typically stays on four to six hours per shift," said Isaac Talbot. Kelsey estimates they serve 100s of smoothies per day. (Each week, 30 gallons of compost go to New Terra.)

The kitchen shelves are gorgeous with organic, natural, superpower ingredients: Medicinal reishi, lion's mane, nutmeg, mesquite and cardamom. Beets, curry, cumin.

There's organic coconut, pineapple, brown rice syrup, almond milk, organic black tahini.

And oat flour. Cacoa nibs. Chickpeas. Sweet potatoes. Pineapples, oranges, onions.

Southern Squeeze began in Riverview behind Tremont Tavern, then expanded to its current location across the street - same block as CVS, right across from Il Primo. Kelsey's opened other locations - Miller Plaza, Tomorrow Building - that later closed; she then expanded Southern Squeeze's current location.

It wasn't easy. It's never ... easy.

"It is hard," she said. "But at the end of the day, what we are putting out and the space we are cultivating? There's nowhere else. I think that all ships rise together."

How do you endure?

"God," she said. "I'm a very spiritual person. When things aren't kicking along, you've really got to trust."

"Everything will work out. Sometimes, you forget."

Today, Southern Squeeze has 28 employees. It's their presence that elevates and shapes the Southern Squeeze atmosphere. You feel it when you walk in.

"Culture is important to me. They have heart and soul. I want them to feel respected," she said.

She's a mom of two young children; Southern Squeeze endured a pandemic and, now, rising food prices.

The tempting deals - cheaper ingredients, shortcuts with staff, cutting out locally sourced ingredients - are always there.

As we sat at the Southern Squeeze table, smoothie glasses straw-slurped clean, I asked one final question:

Why devote so much time, money and energy when there are quicker, cheaper ways?

That's when Kelsey made one final announcement.

"To help heal a system."

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This story is 100% human generated; no AI chatbot was used in the creation of this content.