Main Squeeze

The Main Squeeze Story

Owner Leigh Lockhart fell in love with juicing while traveling and living out of her Ford F150 in California in the early 1990’s. She settled in Columbia in 1996, got a bartending gig at Murry’s and proceeded to share her mason jar juices with the girl gang there. Shortly thereafter she began plying Skip DuCharme, owner of Lakota Coffee Company, with her tasty, fresh pressed juices and he was kind enough to let her open Main Squeeze inside the front corner of his coffee shop at 24 S. 9th St. on May 15, 1996. Main Squeeze was the first fresh juice and smoothie place in Columbia and business was so good that within a year Leigh expanded into a quick service cafe 2 doors down, at its present location.

For 25 years Leigh focused on her mission to promote plant based eating thru fresh juices, smoothies and a hecka busy cafe serving made to order salads, sandwiches, hot dishes and baked goods. Over the years there were so many good times and literally millions of plant based meals served, which for Leigh, translated into animal lives saved. Of course there were very tough times also. Sustaining a restaurant for 25 years is hard work and after surviving two years of a pandemic, Leigh and Main Squeeze were ready for a change. If you care for a deep dive into the exact reasons for the rebranding of Main Squeeze from cafe to market, check out our blog post.

Main Squeeze has a long history of caring about our impact on the environment that goes beyond plant based eating. We were the first restaurant to compost our food waste and turn it into usable garden soil, including for our own garden that grows a bit of what we serve. Our food waste has nourished countless gardens (and chickens!) around Columbia and has served as an educational tool for local school kids. We were one of the first business to take part in a city initiative to help businesses make energy improvements to their buildings (even though we rent our space we put in thermal windows, blown in insulation, an on-demand hot water heater and a white roof). We were the first business in Columbia to introduce corn-based, compostable To Go packaging. We were the first restaurant in Columbia focused on buying organic food and supporting local farms. Main Squeeze was recognized for its sustainable business model and in 2015 received the first ever Mayor’s Climate Protection Award (MCPA) which recognizes businesses and organizations for their environmental stewardship.

Running a plant based cafe for 25 years is hands down our greatest contribution to caring for the environment, but after 25 years we wanted to turn our efforts to another serious threat to the environment, single use plastics. We closed our kitchen in 2023 and returned to our Smoothie roots. In addition our new retail market has hundreds of plastic free and package free alternatives. Cork wallets, bamboo utensils, bamboo bandaids, biodegradable razors, biodegradable hair ties, shampoo/conditioner bars, wool dryer balls, recycled paper journals, biodegradable poop bags and so many products to help reduce our reliance on plastic.

Our new Refillery has the potential to eliminate tons of plastic from the waste stream by filling and refilling more than 40 home and body products including shampoo/conditioner, laundry/hand and dish soap, all purpose cleaner, cleaning vinegar, bubble bath, toothpaste tablets and more. Bring your own clean container or use one of ours, everything is available by the ounce. See our ONLINE STORE for a menu.

We hope you'll stop by (bring your dog), grab a smoothie and check out the new market.