Choices Kitchen Offers Free Yoga Before Sunday Brunch

Brunch is the perfect meal — an artful combo of breakfast and lunch foods, served just late enough to satisfy after-hours revelers and early-morning exercisers alike.

Now, Choices Kitchen has introduced an extra-special option on Sundays: yoga brunch. The popular plant-based eatery is offering a free yoga class followed by a lineup of meal options. 

"Yoga always has synergy in our view with our mission. People who truly practice yoga and follow ahimsa — which is 'do no harm' — it obviously goes hand in hand with what we try to teach at the restaurants," says Lori Zito, president of Choices. "We thought it would be a nice way to literally bring the two things together."

"We offer our regular menu plus some fun, new brunch options only available on Sundays at the kitchen," she adds. The special options include gluten-free crepes (sweet and savory), missing eggs Benedict (with savory scones and cashew hollandaise sauce), pesto scramble with sweet potato hash, and komusas (organic local kombucha and fresh-squeezed organic OJ).

At the original Choices location in Brickell, there was a yoga studio around the corner, and people would come in and eat afterward, Zito says, so the combination made a lot of sense. "This is also sort of an introduction to what will be in the Grove because we'll have yoga right above us," she adds. 

Zito is a certified teacher and taught the first class at the Kitchen. It ended up being full, and the Choices team decided to continue to offer the experience, but Zito didn't have the time to teach every week. So she reached out to community teachers to donate their time, and there's been an excellent response. 

Teachers vary, but usually it's someone from Miami's Green Monkey. "It varies each week, but we announce it every week on our Facebook page and Veganlicious Meetup and Eventbrite," Zito says. 

"It's also really cool because it allows us the ability to expose our team members to yoga. Some have come for the classes, and some are there in the morning, setting up breakfast in the back. The first class we did, one of the girls came out, and she was like, 'Lori, that's the first time I've ever even seen yoga!' It just opens people's minds to stuff they haven't seen before." 

The yoga class happens indoors (good to know for the rainy season). "We pull out all the tables, and we practice to the smells of breakfast of being made."

Class begins at 9 a.m. every Sunday at Choices Kitchen, 711 NW 27th Ave., Miami. Attendees must bring their own mats.