The Purple Bowl, a popular Chapel Hill smoothie bowl local, is set to expand this spring.

The restaurant, located at 306 West Franklin Street in suite B, will soon extend into the vacant 306 suite A.

Paula Gilland, CEO of The Purple Bowl, spoke with Chapelboro about the expansion of the restaurant.

“We had thought about expanding for some time and decided that we really needed to do it,” Gilland said. “The volume of customers has been up and we’ve been doing a lot of catering. So, we were excited when the opportunity itself and we were able to grab that space next door.”

Gilland said one reason for the expansion is to allow more seating and create better working conditions for employees.

“We’ve just been having a lot more catering,” Gilland said. “With the students back now, more volume of customers coming, we just needed more space for our workers. The kitchen was so tight that producing all the food that we produce was tricky with the space that we had.”

Another reason the expansion is important, according to Gilland, is for the creation of a less cramped work environment for all employees.

“We work with B3, which is in our organization that helps disabled adults get jobs in our community,” Gilland said. “We’re hoping to expand that as well, so that if they needed a buddy with them, there’s a little more room and space for that as well.”

Gilland said Purple Bowl’s plan is to knock down the wall between the suites to create one space. She said the restaurant hopes both spaces of the business will be open by mid-May and that construction minimally interrupts the business.

Operations at The Purple Bowl are beginning to look like normal after some interruptions by the COVID-19 pandemic. The restaurant recently brought back its Sunday morning running club. Gilland said they hope to bring back the evening music Monday event for musician performances.

“We’re hoping to start to be kind of inviting people back and we wanted to invite them back to a bigger space,” Gilland said.

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