A Broadway Health Spot That’s Been in the Works for a Year Has an Opening Date — and a New Name

The Miami-based health-food chain that’s been planning a Broadway location since last summer has finally locked in an opening date — and it’s arriving with a freshly trimmed name and the usual grand-opening fanfare.

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Carrot — formerly Carrot Express, now one word shorter after a company-wide rebrand — opens at 2169 Broadway, between West 76th and 77th Streets, on Tuesday, June 30. It’s the storefront beside the shuttered Harmon Health & Beauty, where we first reported the chain was headed last summer.

As is standard for these openings, there’s a giveaway attached. Doors open at 7 a.m., and the first 100 customers get a branded tote bag holding a $50 gift card, carrot seeds, a slice of carrot cake, a bag of founder Mario Laufer’s homemade granola, and a coffee the chain had Miami roaster Imperial Motto blend for it. A separate promo runs Wednesday, July 1 through Sunday, July 5, when any purchase comes with a free Coffee Mocha Power Smoothie.

The name change is the part regulars will clock. Carrot Express is now just Carrot — same chain, one less word — a shift the company packages under the tagline “Feel Natural.” Laufer says today’s wellness culture can feel “overly curated and artificial,” and the slimmed-down name is meant to read as the more down-to-earth alternative. Whether dropping “Express” accomplishes that is left as an exercise for the customer.

The 1,377-square-foot space seats 30 inside and another 16 outside under umbrellas, done up in the wood-and-terracotta palette the chain has been rolling out at its newer stores. Mico Design Studio handled the interior.

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The menu carries over from the rest of the chain: salads, grain bowls, soups, veggie burgers, made-to-order wraps, baked goods, cold-pressed juices, and smoothies, plus an all-day breakfast and a barista program built around that same Imperial Motto roast. The Flatiron menu gives a sense of pricing ahead of opening day, where bowls run into the low-to-mid $20s.

Laufer started the business inside a Miami Beach gas station in 1993 and brought it to New York in 2022. It now has locations in Flatiron, Bryant Park, Midtown, Brookfield Place, and Nolita, with the Upper West Side next up and another outpost planned for 1290 Avenue of the Americas. The Broadway store will run daily from 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. for dine-in, takeout, delivery, and catering.

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