North Syracusans seeking a fast and fresh lunch have a new option on Buckley Road: CORE, the “active lifestyle” restaurant based around greens, grains and bone broth.
John Caveny, who co-founded the now-closed Jolime Café with his wife Lisa and daughter Megan, is teaming up with Binghamton-based Larry Wilson and Todd Mansfield for CORE, which serves sizeable portions of fresh, additive-free food based on greens (spinach, kale, arugula), grains (quinoa, rice noodles, farro) or bone broth, meat stock that is rich in nutrients. Also on the menu are fresh extracted juices, lemonades and teas. Wilson owns local franchises of Moe’s Southwest Grill, Hoopla Frozen Yogurt and Video King, while Mansfield will serve as CORE’s wellness and nutrition expert.
“By the time you walk out, everything you ate was healthy,” Caveny said. “You can’t get a cookie, you can’t get chips, you can’t get a soda. [Customers] don’t have to feel tempted.”
Caveny said Wilson was inspired by a similar green eatery downstate, so he brought the idea north.
“We didn’t feel like there was a lot of access to this type of food in Upstate New York,” Caveny said. “Everything is made from scratch every day, so you’re getting the real flavor that’s meant to come out of the vegetables.”
Caveny invited employees of local businesses to a VIP lunch one day before CORE’s official May 6 opening.
Eric Bishop, who works at M&T Bank, said he liked having a fast, healthy alternative to fast food restaurants’ simply iceberg salads.
“If you feel good about what you’re eating, you don’t feel like you’re eating rabbit food,” he said.
Ashley Cox, a local musician who works at CXtec, brought her co-worker Tricia Karn to the VIP tasting.
“I used to eat here before and I’ve been waiting for it to reopen,” Karn said. “It’s great to be able to get something like this at a restaurant in this area — it’s the first.”
Karn called CORE “innovative” for Syracuse.
“It feels like New York City — big city thinking. It makes my city cool,” Cox said.
As for CORE’s future, Caveny said he and his partners will assess the eatery’s progress in 90 days. The Cavenys’ two other Jolime locations — one at North Medical Center in Liverpool and the other on East Jefferson Street in Syracuse — will remain as they are for now, but more COREs are on the horizon.
CORE is open from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. daily and is located at 7265 Buckley Road, Syracuse. For more information, call 299-4451 or visit eatatcore.com.
