A Florida-based wellness cafe known for its clean-eating menu and bright, airy dining rooms is opening its first Massachusetts location in Cambridge's Harvard Square. Pura Vida Miami will take over 95 Mount Auburn St, a spot across from Winthrop Park, with the cafe expected to open on October 22.
According to MassLive, the Cambridge location will serve avocado toast, pasture-raised egg dishes, chef-driven salads, high-protein plates and açaí bowls, along with smoothies, coffee, matcha, tea and freshly baked goods. The cafe is expected to be open 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. Monday through Saturday and 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Sundays, per the same report. Pura Vida Miami was founded in 2012 by husband-and-wife duo Omer and Jennifer Horev, and the brand already has locations in Florida, New York, New Jersey, Washington, D.C., Maryland, California and Virginia, MassLive notes.
The space itself carries some local history. The storefront previously housed a Verizon Wireless retail store before the telecom provider relocated elsewhere within Harvard Square, according to Cambridge Day. The new cafe will span 4,151 square feet in total — 2,708 square feet of interior space with 88 seats, plus a 1,443-square-foot patio decked out with Pura Vida's signature ice-blue tasseled umbrellas, per Harvard Square Business Association filings.
Cambridge's Formula Business Rules Come Into Play
Because Pura Vida operates under standardized branding across more than 10 locations nationwide, the company had to clear a special permit from the Cambridge Board of Zoning Appeal under Harvard Square's Formula Business regulations, which are designed to preserve the neighborhood's independent retail character. That approval process is documented in filings reviewed by Cambridge Day.
The chain's Massachusetts debut lands amid a broader national growth push. Pura Vida operated 57 company-owned locations across seven states as of this month, with plans to reach 65 by the end of 2026 and scale to 100 locations by 2027, according to Restaurant Business. That expansion is being fueled in part by outside capital: private equity firm TSG Consumer Partners made a strategic minority growth investment in the company in November 2025 to accelerate its national footprint, while the Horevs retained majority ownership, per the same publication.
New Executive Hires Signal Bigger Ambitions
To manage that growth, Pura Vida has brought on veteran restaurant executives this year, including Chief Development Officer Andrew McCaughan, who spent 16 years at Shake Shack, and Chief Culinary Officer Chad Brauze, a former culinary executive at Sweetgreen and Chipotle, Restaurant Business reports. The company hit its 50th location milestone in April with a 3,500-square-foot opening at The Mall at Short Hills in New Jersey. Massachusetts would become its eighth state.
The dining experience blends counter-service ordering with a sit-down feel: guests order at the register but eat on real tableware, with seed-oil-free cooking and custom ambient fragrances as brand signatures, according to the outlet's reporting. Pura Vida also touts sustainability practices that include prepping all produce in-house, composting kitchen scraps to donate soil to local farms, and sponsoring quarterly beach cleanups, per the company's own materials.
Harvard Square's Health-Food Boom
Pura Vida isn't arriving in a vacuum. Its Mount Auburn Street debut coincides with a wave of health-oriented openings in the neighborhood, including BoostBerry Açaí & Smoothies, which applied this month to open a storefront next door at 99 Mount Auburn St, according to Cambridge Day's review of city license filings. The clustering of wellness-focused concepts around Winthrop Park suggests Harvard Square's health-food scene is only heating up.
Whether Pura Vida's higher-end price points and hybrid counter-service model will resonate with Cambridge's mix of students and longtime residents remains an open question, and it's not yet clear where else in Greater Boston the chain might expand next. Hoodline has previously tracked Pura Vida's growth in Long Beach, Tampa and Fairfax as the chain has raced toward its 100-location goal.
