The Story Behind the Sun: Sol Bol

By: Katelyn Weddle

Since the start of the 2021-2022 school year, Acai Restaurant Sol Bol has been a popular off-campus lunch destination. 

Sol Bol owner, Lori Heezel, explains that the name was given to the restaurant by the previous owners. “Sol is actually short for ‘sun’ in other languages.” 

Also, “acai bowls are a Brazilian breakfast food,” so the name is fitting. The logo is a sun.

On the official Sol Bol Visalia website, it says that Sol Bol is “Downtown Visalia’s first-ever acai bowl restaurant.”  The hours for Sol Bol are 9:00 AM to 3 PM Monday-Friday, 10:00 AM to 3:00 PM Saturday, and closed on Sundays.

“It makes [Heezel] feel proud to have something unique to add to [Visalia’s] wonderful downtown.”

Sol Bol was originally started in 2018 because the former owners wanted “a way to bring acai bowls to [the] area” similar to the restaurants found in both Northern and Southern California that were rising in popularity. 

The owners “put a lot of work in starting this business.”

Heezel bought the restaurant in May of 2020, also known as the start of COVID. She admits that it was “a bit of a risk, but [she] was excited to take on the challenge and grow the business.”

“The initial main goal [for Sol Bol] was to deliver healthier food to include vegetarian/vegan options, [and] some gluten-free options and options for those with food allergies.”

Heezel says that Sol Bol still has these options available, and they “carry mostly all-natural and many organic foods.” She feels that serving healthy food is an important goal of hers that she hopes to continue with. 

When asked about her success, Heezel says that Sol Bol is going strong because “we really do listen to the customer and [we] have implemented many new items to the menu based on customer request.” 

Heezel says that Sol Bol gets a good amount of traffic from Redwood students eating there off-campus, “and it is great!” 

Heezel ends by explaining that they have “added many menu items that we, and our customers, wanted to offer such as more hot foods, cold-pressed juices, and more sorbet options.” 

Very fitting with the name, the Sol Bol is the most popular item.

“I’m a big fan of Sol Bol. I think it’s a really good local business, and my favorite thing there us the Sunrise Bowl. They also recently added lunch that is pretty good. As a whole, I think it is a really good restaurant.”

Sarah Plummer (’22)

“I like Sol Bol because it’s healthy and I get good vibes from the place.”

Aiden Kempf (’22)

“I really like how all of the food always tastes really fresh. They get the food to you really quickly, so I can get there and back in time for school.”

Natalie Nelson (’24)

Tags: acai, clubs & lifestyles, downtown visalia, katelyn weddle, lori heezel, off campus lunch, redwood gigantea, redwood high school, redwood journalism, redwood rangers, sol bol, visalia ca