SoBoL expanding on Long Island with 4 new açaí bowl shops planned in 2026

SoBoL, the locally born açai bowl and smoothie franchise, is planning four more Long Island locations amid a nationwide expansion push — as competition grows in the increasingly crowded açai market.

The company has announced new storefronts in Roslyn Heights, Miller Place, Port Washington and Selden, with the Roslyn Heights store likely to be the first to open, said Nick Pesko, SoBoL’s director of marketing.

He did not provide exact timelines for any of the spots, but said the hope is that all will open this year.

SoBoL was founded in 2013 with a first location in Sayville, where co-founder Jason Mazzarone grew up. He and Jim Kalomiris have since expanded the brand nationwide. SoBoL has 87 stores in 11 states, with plans to reach 100 locations by the end of 2026, according to Pesko.

The four new storefronts slated on Long Island will join the franchise’s 40 locations across the region.

The expansion is a bet that the health craze that helped popularize açai bowls in recent years has become an enduring business opportunity — one that can keep fueling SoBoL’s growth even as more chains and cafes crowd into the category.

Kevin Schimpf, senior director of industry research at Technomic, a restaurant industry analysis firm in Chicago, noted that 2025 was a strong year for SoBoL (Pesko said the company opened 15 new locations). But competitors abound, Schimpf said.

Playa Bowls has eight locations on Long Island, while Bango Bowls has nine, and both tout açai as their main offering. And with 25 Long Island locations, Tropical Smoothie Cafe has added bowls to the menu.

“My hunch is that we are approaching a point of over-saturation of these concepts,” Schimpf said in an email.

If the market becomes oversaturated, Schimpf said, smaller operators could be squeezed or consolidated, while larger chains with more resources and açai menu items may be better positioned to compete.

However, because of the small footprints of the stores and their minor equipment requirements, SoBoL has the ability to grow rapidly compared with other types of restaurants that require more resources, Schimpf said in an email.

Pesko said SoBoL’s Long Island roots remain one of its advantages and that demand for açai is still high.

“For people that live here, açai has become a staple product,” he said. “I wouldn’t rank it up there with pizza and bagels, but it’s certainly something I think Long Islanders feel proud of and enjoy.”

The company is primarily franchise-owned and operated. After going through the application process, getting a location approved and meeting with other SoBoL location owners, budding entrepreneurs pay a $40,000 franchise fee as part of their agreement, Pesko said. In total, the typical cost to open a SoBoL location is between $196,000 and $410,000, he said.

At the local level, Pesko said SoBoL tries to avoid crowding its locations too closely together. Franchisees generally cannot open stores within 2 to 4 miles of each other, he said.

By Rachel Weiss

rachel.weiss@newsday.com@RachMWeiss

Rachel Weiss joined Newsday in 2016. As a real estate/living multimedia reporter, Rachel writes feature stories and contributes to and appears in on-camera video packages. She was the lead reporter on Newsday’s LI Acts of Kindness series.