Juice Bar Near Me in Astoria: Fitrition on Steinway Street

Fitrition at 30-09 Steinway Street, on the corner of 30th Avenue in Astoria, is half supplement store and half juice bar, and the juice side is the reason most people walk in. A 16-ounce Mean Green of cucumber, celery, lemon, kale, jalapeño and green apple costs $8.95 on the shop's online ordering page, with the 24-ounce size $1 more. If you are searching juice bar near me after a workout in Astoria, it is open until 9 pm Monday through Friday.

Fitrition's About page tells a small-business story. High-school friends Michael Beringer and Michael Portannese founded it with Daniela Portannese, and the first store opened on November 5, 2016, at 32-55 Francis Lewis Boulevard in Bayside, in a space that had been a hair salon. The idea was simple: sell protein and vitamins on one wall and make fresh food and drinks on the other.

The Astoria store followed on July 1, 2018, and the company describes its spot as between NYSC and Planet Fitness, which explains the crowd. The chain now lists stores in Bayside and on Astoria Boulevard, on Long Island in Melville and New Hyde Park, and in Hawthorne and Westwood in New Jersey. The Steinway Street shop is the one most Astoria regulars mean when they say Fitrition.

The juice list is short and direct. Mean Green is the house favorite, and the jalapeño gives it a real bite at the end. Detox mixes kale, red apple, cucumber and ginger, and Heat Beet is the sweetest of the three, beet, red apple and pear. All three are $8.95 for 16 ounces on the ordering page, and the shop says its drinks are all natural with no added sugar.

If you want a green juice that tastes like vegetables rather than fruit, Mean Green is the order. If you are new to green juice, start with Heat Beet; the pear softens the earthiness of the beet. The 24-ounce upgrade for an extra dollar is the best value on the menu if you are drinking it as a meal replacement after the gym.

Because Fitrition sells supplements, the smoothies lean toward protein. Thicker than A Snicker blends banana, peanut butter and chocolate whey for $9.25, and Purple Haze adds acai, almond butter, banana, chocolate whey, cinnamon, honey and oat milk at the same price. These are the drinks the gym crowd orders by name, and they are dense enough to replace a lunch.

The bowls are named for the borough. The Astoria Bowl, $13.20, comes with bananas, strawberries, cacao nibs, bee pollen, granola and almond butter. The Queens Bowl, also $13.20, blends dragon fruit, acai, banana, pineapple and almond milk, then adds banana, kiwi, strawberries, granola and chia. Avocado toast is $6.99 if you need something savory alongside.

The shakes are where the supplement side of the business shows. Fitrition started as a store selling protein and vitamins, and its blender menu reflects that, with chocolate whey as the base for both Thicker than A Snicker and Purple Haze rather than an afterthought you pay extra for. If you avoid dairy, look at the bowls instead; the Queens Bowl is blended with almond milk and lists no whey at all, and the Astoria Bowl relies on almond butter for its richness.

You order at the juice counter, which runs along one side of the store opposite the supplement shelves. Give Me Astoria noted in 2021 that the take-away items carry macro breakdowns, which suits people counting protein and carbs. The shop also sells daily cold oatmeal and Greek yogurt parfaits from the case, and there is a mobile app for ordering ahead.

Online orders through the website stop at 8:45 pm on weekdays, slightly before the doors close at 9 pm. On weekends the store opens at 9 am and closes at 7 pm, so Saturday and Sunday evenings are not an option. The supplement aisle works like any vitamin store, and it is entirely separate from the juice line.

The busiest window is early evening on weekdays, when the gyms around the corner let out and the counter fills with people in workout clothes ordering protein shakes. If you want a juice without the wait, come mid-morning between 9 and 11 am, or order through the app and pick up. Give Me Astoria called it a popular and well-known destination for smoothies and acai bowls, and that popularity shows after 6 pm.

If the line is too long, Kinship Coffee Cooperative is practically next door at 30-05 Steinway Street, a better choice if all you really need is caffeine. Coming back after the rush is the smarter move than waiting through a queue of eight protein shakes; each one takes longer to blend than a pressed juice does.

Steinway Street and 30th Avenue is one of Astoria's main crossroads, and walking west on 30th Avenue gets you into the neighborhood's dining strip. Butcher Bar at 37-10 30th Avenue is a barbecue restaurant a short walk away, and it is the opposite of a juice bar, which is sort of the point if you want a Queens evening with some balance.

A good plan is to grab a Mean Green after a weekday workout, sit down with a coffee at Kinship if you want to linger, then walk the length of 30th Avenue and pick a dinner spot on the way. The 30 Av station on the N and W is at the far end of the walk, so the evening ends at the train instead of doubling back to Steinway Street.

Address: 30-09 Steinway Street, Astoria, NY 11103, at 30th Avenue. Subway: 30 Av on the N and W, or Steinway St on the M and R, each about a ten-minute walk. Hours: Monday to Friday 8 am to 9 pm, Saturday and Sunday 9 am to 7 pm. Online orders close at 8:45 pm.

Prices from Fitrition's online ordering page: Mean Green, Detox and Heat Beet juices $8.95 for 16 ounces, $1 more for 24 ounces; Thicker than A Snicker and Purple Haze shakes $9.25; Astoria Bowl and Queens Bowl $13.20; avocado toast $6.99. Supplements are sold in the same store.