You can find some good juice and smoothie bars in Denver, but are they making their salad dressings from scratch every day? Are they only serving juices that are cold-pressed that morning? Campo Juice + Kitchen is. With a focus on the highest quality ingredients and techniques, Campo brings a new meaning to the word “fresh” with its juice bar and kitchen in RiNo.
Lina and Andrew Leven
Husband and wife duo Andrew and Lina Leven are no strangers to the kitchen. Lina worked for a juice company and after managing kitchens in New York and learning the ins and outs of purchasing and production, Andrew was hired on as the director of production there. “I loved speaking directly with the farmers. I would meet with them and talk about the produce and they would tell me what I should and shouldn’t order that day,” Andrew said. The farm-to-bottle aspect of the juice became so important to Andrew that when the company was acquired and started ordering produce from bigger, more corporate companies, they lost that high level of quality control. That’s when Andrew and Lina began planning to open a kitchen of their own.
After several years of recipe testing and visiting different restaurants and juice bars, the couple moved to Colorado to open Campo. “We love the pace of Colorado; the people here are so relaxed and we turned our three-hour commutes to 14 minutes,” said Andrew. The new space is next to Lekker coffee and provides a relaxing environment to enjoy a smoothie, salad or acai bowl for breakfast or lunch. Lina designed the entire space herself and it’s so clean, airy and bright that you would never believe that it was a barbershop in its former life.
The restaurant exists to serve the freshest, tastiest, organic and local food to the community — no cutting corners. Andrew sources all of the produce from organic, family-owned farms and is extremely picky on what he brings into the restaurant. “My family always makes fun of me because of my taste in food,” he joked, “They think I’m too picky.” Everything from the Losada olives in the Mykonos salad and Molino 100% extra virgin olive oil in the salad dressings to the avocado toast made with bread from Rebel Bread and the pineapples in the juices and smoothies are chosen with intention. “Most restaurants order oil in huge batches and what they call olive oil is actually a 60/40 blend of olive oil and canola oil. You can definitely taste a difference,” said Andrew.
In addition to the best ingredients, everything you order is made fresh that day. Andrew and Lina press the juices, make the salad dressings and cook the soups individually every morning — not in batches. The soup Andrew makes is literally a pot of soup he cooks on a hot plate and when he runs out, he makes more. “We don’t have a full kitchen in here, so even if I wanted to make soup in bigger batches, I couldn’t,” he said. “It takes a long time but it’s so much better and so worth it,” Lina added.
The menu at Campo includes juices, nut milks, smoothies, salads, acai bowls, toasts, lemonades, oatmeals, chia puddings, a Greek yogurt parfait and a daily soup. Whether you’re in the mood for a post-workout smoothie like the Mountain Berry Banana ($10.50) with strawberries, bananas, cashew butter, vegan protein and almond milk or a refreshing acai bowl like the Beauty Bowl ($11.50) with organic acai, strawberries, blueberries, avocado, cinnamon and almond milk topped with granola, strawberries, bananas and chia seeds, you’ll find something that’s as delicious as it is healthy.
Next time you’re in the mood for something healthy, don’t skimp on the quality — head to Campo to leave feeling revitalized and refreshed.
Campo Juice + Kitchen is located at 3450 Larimer St, Denver. Open Monday – Friday 7 a.m. – 4 p.m. and Saturday – Sunday 8 a.m. – 3 p.m.
All photography by Shelby Moeller.