This new eatery hopes to have you feel the love at either end of the South Bay Trail

Passion and inspiration are important concepts to Lisa Thomson, and it's something she wants to be an important part of her new business.

Thomson recently opened Big Love Juice at 1149 N. State St. in the Herald Building. In the coming months she also is opening a juice bar in Fairhaven at 1144 10th St., near Ovn Wood Fired Pizza.

In the Herald Building, Big Love Juice offers a variety of juice drinks, but also tea, coffee, baked goods and bowls of food. A popular example of bowl food is Chair 6, which includes blueberries, pineapple, banana, granola and dark chocolate.

Having started a food delivery project called Local Organic Veggie Everything (LOVE) in 2016, Thomson was initially hesitant about opening a brick-and-mortar business because it has "so many moving parts," but received plenty of encouragement from customers to give it a go. She views the business as a service, focused on delivering healthy, fresh, well-made food at a fair price.

Preparing healthy fresh food can be expensive because of the amount of labor required for preparation. She tries to cut that expense by making the dishes and juice as simple as possible.

The two locations are part of an intentional plan. She wants to bookend what she believes is a great Bellingham asset — the South Bay Trail, a 2.5 mile trip that she said offers so many different views and both urban and coastal forest feel. It's a trail that provides some of that inspiration that she wants in Big Love Juice.

Thomson also is a fan of upcycling furniture, so customers might recognize several things inside Big Love Juice, including items from places such as Birch Bay Waterslides.

Big Love Juice is expanding its hours starting April 16 and will be open 8:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Monday through Saturday and 11 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. on Sunday. It also has started a delivery service. Orders can be made on its website and are delivered on Wednesdays.

Details about the business, including its menu, can be found at BigLoveJuice.com.

This story was originally published April 14, 2018 at 12:00 PM with the headline "This new eatery hopes to have you feel the love at either end of the South Bay Trail."