Hayley Raff found herself spending a lot of time in the car while she was pregnant with her second child.
It wasn’t out of desire — more of a necessity. Conscious of her health with a daughter, Tivilee, on the way, Raff had opted for a stricter diet, one that cut out processed sugars and gluten.
But finding those foods close to home was difficult, she said. Often, she and her husband would need to make trips outside the Valley to Issaquah or sometimes Bellevue.
“That’s when I was really aware how limited our healthy unprocessed food options were out here in the Valley,” she said.
“We knew there were other people who probably felt just like we did,” she said. “So we wanted to bring access to healthy foods to our community.”
So when a space for lease in downtown North Bend opened up, Raff saw it as an opportunity. And after a long remodel, Pressed on Main, a cold pressed juice shop and gluten-free eatery, was born.
It’s not Raff’s first foray into running a small business. Her husband, Aaron, owns the North Bend Bakery, only a couple blocks from Pressed on Main.
“We’re kind of two opposite ends of the spectrum,” Raff said of her husband. “It’s funny, people are like ‘how does that work?’ But we meet in the middle.”
Leading up to opening, Raff spent the summer taking her juices to the North Bend Farmers Market, gauging feedback, refining her menu and building anticipation.
It’s also where she met Sarah Hughes, a local artist whose parents used to own a tanning salon at Pressed on Main’s location. Hughes agreed to paint a North Bend-themed mural on the store’s northern exterior wall.
“It was serendipitous,” Raff said. “The wall was very unsightly. It was calling for something to be put on it.”
The mural on the back wall of Pressed on Main in December 2022. Photo Conor Wilson/Valley Record.
When Pressed on Main finally did open for real, the initial response was overwhelming, Raff said.
On April 2, Pressed on Main’s first day in operation, the store sold out of nearly all of its produce. They were so depleted, in fact, that they had to close for the next two days to restock.
“We were just unprepared for the support that came out,” Raff said. “My head is still spinning.”
Now nearly a month into the shop’s tenure, Raff said they’ve “worked out the kinks. It took a couple days,” she admitted, “but we got there.”
Raff said she has future goals to expand Pressed on Main’s reach. She plans to take her juices to more markets this summer and get the word out about her shop, letting I-90 travelers know there is an alternative to the fast food restaurants immediately off the interstate.
For now though, she’s just excited to be serving the community good food.
“Maybe in a few years we’ll think bigger,” she said, “but for now we’re just happy to be here.”
