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Read the press release here.

Healthy Washington Heights Eatery Pick and Eat Expanding to Inwood

By Lindsay Armstrong | January 29, 2015 9:49am | Updated on January 30, 2015 6:51pm
 Pick and Eat will open a second storefront in Inwood this April.
Pick and Eat
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INWOOD — One of the first Washington Heights restaurants to focus on healthy food is expanding to Inwood in hopes of combating locals' "sad" eating habits, the owner said.

Pick and Eat, located at 177th Street and Broadway, will open a second location at 207th Street and Broadway by the beginning of April, owner Alex Peralta told DNAinfo.

The restaurant, which offers made-to-order salads, fresh juices, gourmet burgers and whole-wheat and gluten-free pasta dishes, opened its Washington Heights location in 2011.

“With Inwood, everybody that comes here from up there was craving this kind of spot in their neighborhood,” said Peralta of his decision to expand farther uptown.

Peralta, 37, said the new location would offer the same menu as the 177th Street outpost, with the possible exception of its wood-roasted pizzas.

“There’s no gas there, only electric,” Peralta said. “But we’re definitely thinking about it and trying to find an option to give the taste of the wood smoke.”

He said one possibility is baking the pizza alongside cedar chips.

Both Pick and Eat locations will also begin offering a menu of healthier homemade desserts, including a dairy-free flan and sugar-free sweet potato pie, Peralta explained.

The owner is also applying for a license to sell beer and wine at the Inwood eatery.  

The Washington Heights location of Pick and Eat has built a strong base of customers drawn to its healthy options in an area where queso frito and tostones are mainstays.

Peralta, who grew up in the Dominican Republic and lived in Washington Heights as a young adult, said it was important for him to offer the community something different.

"The obesity here…I mean it's sad what this community is going through in terms of food," he explained. “Many restaurants here use a lot of chemicals in their cooking, chicken stock with a lot of sodium. So I said let’s do this here, not Downtown where you have maybe 10 people on one block doing the same thing.”

To that end, Pick and Eat offers high-quality ingredients including organic vegetables, wild salmon, and hormone- and antibiotic-free chicken. But, Peralta noted, the flavors are distinctly Dominican.

"I think the idea is to make it healthy but at the same time give it that Caribbean twist, which we try to do on every plate," he said.

The corner where Peralta plans to set up shop has a history of being difficult for business, with several previous occupants shutting down after only a short time. Mexican eatery La Piñata was the most recent to close its doors there.

But Peralta's not worried, pointing out that his Washington Heights address had a similar history before Pick and Eat opened in 2011.

"That's the same thing they used to say about this corner," he said of the 177th Street location. "There were maybe seven businesses here before me, and nothing stayed more than one year."

Peralta hopes to draw a diverse clientele to the Inwood restaurant, including commuters using the nearby A train.

"It's an open space. It's accessible to everybody," he said. "I think I will grab most of the people in the area."