'Healthy Fast Food' Plants New Roots

Bryn Davis said it couldn’t be done – at least not in his practically trademarked healthy way, anyhow.

Soda. French fries. Fast food staples - albeit historically unhealthy – were beyond the scope of what Davis, the mastermind behind Horsham’s own wildly popular wrap, popcorn and smoothie shack, Bryn and Dane’s, thought he could do. 

But, that was about nine months and two locations ago. Now, with his closed, an Ocean City, N.J. location open and days before his opens (on Feb. 17) at the , 400 Privet Road, Davis and his crew of 30 employees is ready to unveil a whole new menu and the next phase of his Bryn and Dane’s empire.

For starters, Davis will be offering a low-fat French fry – or is that a baked fry?

“They’re amazing,” the 20-something entrepreneur said, from his new fast food-serving abode, as employees put finishing touches on a brand-new self-serve coffee bar. “Amazing. I swear.”

because they contain “a ton of carbs,” will literally eat his words with the introduction of his under 200-calorie side. 

“Everybody asks for chips,” Davis said. “And everybody asks for soda.”

At his other locations, besides smoothies, coffee and a variety of flavored teas were the thirst-quenching options. But, now Davis intends to honor his customers’ most frequent request by offering eight different flavors of fountain sodas – all caffeine-free and without high fructose corn syrup.

For dessert, soft-serve frozen yogurt and yogurt parfaits will be available. A new smoothie, dubbed “Mo Green” – comprised of spinach, kale, bananas, pineapple and mango – will make its debut.

Customization will reign supreme with three types of ketchups, including mesquite and garlic, Davis said.

And, of course, Davis couldn’t invest $100,000 in renovating a former coffee shop without focusing attention on the brew itself.

“The whole idea with this is to take Wawa convenience and couple it with Starbucks quality,” Davis said of the chic coffee bar that carpenter Ed Shope built to house creamer, sweetener and everything else to make the perfect cup. “The drive-through coffee should be huge.”

In scale, the new 2,000-square-foot location is only about 100 square feet larger than the Horsham Road eatery, seating about 30 as compared to 25 before, but Davis said, “It’s smarter here,” adding that everything is positioned better. 

That goes for the trees, too. Expanding upon the shack feeling of the former location, Davis is keeping with the vivid blue walls – and is adding realistic-looking trees to boot.

Carpenter Ed Shope, of Shope Carpentry, who built the Bryn and Dane’s location at the shore, as well as the upgrades to the new restaurant, said the trees, which, for all intents and purposes are growing out of the wall, are made of layer after layer of rubber.

“It’s like a Halloween mask,” Shope said.

A heavier focus on bringing the outdoors in, and less emphasis on cartoonish versions of Davis and his kid brother, Dane, will give the new spot a fresh feel.

“I want it to feel like when you walk inside, you’re walking into the perfect outside,” Davis said. “It’s always perfect. The walls are blue like the sky … the floor looks like it could be a mud.”

And, for 30 minutes during breakfast, lunch, or dinner, Davis said he hopes to offer an “escape” - with or without fries.