frullati smoothie shop in venice, italy

Perhaps it’s because we’re Californian, but breakfast fruit smoothies have long been a staple in my family. (I even brought a smoothie recipe book and portable blender with me when I moved to Israel for a year in college!). Plant-based smoothies, juices and soups made a big reappearance in our life due to Mama‘s battle with brain cancer. We knew we’d have a harder time keeping up the cancer-fighting cooking in Venice as there was sadly no blender in our apartment! So we were thrilled to find this Venetian smoothie shop called frullati. It was on a corner in a tiny campiello (square) that we passed through to get to the Strada Nuova (a big main walking street with a grocery shop, pharmacy and Grom gelato).

Oddly, frullati didn’t seem to have any regular hours. Perhaps this is an Italian thing, but we could never figure out when they’d be open and were several times disappointed to find them shut. And when frullati is closed, you’d never know such a place was there! It’s all boarded up without a sign of any kind gracing its corner.

Unlike California’s staple smoothie shop, Jamba Juice, frullati offers a wide array of alcoholic fruit cocktails as well. Perhaps the confusing target audience is why they have such odd hours? In any case, the yogurt-based and citrus-based smoothies we enjoyed were a lovely, refreshing treat.

They’ve got English and Italian menus with non-alcoholic drinks on one side and cocktails on the other ― or you can make your own smoothie. I made up my own smoothie with fresh pear and mint and I loved it!

If you catch them when they’re open, frullati offers tiny sample cups of several of their drinks. We tried their sangria. Smoothies were a bit pricey at €6, which was about $8 at the time… and twice the cost of a similar smoothie at home. That’s ok though ’cause everything in Venice is more expensive; they have to hand-truck everything in from the closest dock so I guess it makes sense. Anyway, if you’re in Venice and craving a smoothie without your own blender, I’d recommend frullati!

Happy foodie hunting, friends!