A new wellness concept has arrived in downtown Mount Dora with the opening of Daybreak Yoga Collective and Roots Cafe, bringing movement, mindfulness and plant-based dining together under one roof.

Located at 430 N Alexander St., Daybreak Yoga Collective offers hot, warm and cool yoga classes, meditation, sound healing, workshops and teacher training.

Just steps away inside the same space, Roots Cafe serves breakfast and lunch featuring grain bowls, acai bowls, specialty toasts, smoothies, cold-pressed juices, coffee and house-made baked goods.

Founder Mary Beth Wallis says the idea grew from her own yoga journey.

“I finished my yoga teacher training and then went right into Level 2, where you go deeper into the mind-body connection,” Mary Beth says. “During that, I thought, ‘I want to open my own space.’”

Living in Winter Park, she explored several communities before settling on Mount Dora.

“I’ve always been drawn to Mount Dora,” she says. “It reminds me of where I grew up. It’s artsy, quaint and full of small businesses that support each other. I’m also drawn to the water. I saw a gap, and it sort of found me.”

As she talked with fellow yoga students, Mary Beth noticed a common theme.

“I would hear people say they were leaving class to go somewhere else for coffee or food,” she says. “I loved the idea that you could come to a class and stay.”

She hopes the space encourages people to reconnect in person.

“Community and connection are kind of a dying art,” Mary Beth says. “We’re so used to technology. It’s important for our mental health as we age to gather face to face.”

Roots Cafe complements that vision with a menu Chef Sede Clark spent a year developing.

“We found that this area lacked anything plant-based,” she says. “There are smoothie shops, but we wanted a place where yoga and healthy food came together as a collective.”

Sede describes the menu as organic, plant-based and approachable, created to change perceptions about healthy eating.

“This is my definition of soul food,” she says. “Not what is known traditionally, but rather food for the soul. Healing from the inside out.”

Inspired by caring for family members with health challenges, Sede says the cafe has become part of a larger mission.

“I spent a whole year working on this menu, and the first thing I came up with was the vegan banana bread,” she says. “It tastes like the real deal, but it is 100 percent organic and healthy.”

The businesses are designed to complement one another, with yoga, meditation and wellness classes paired with nutritious meals in a shared community space that also hosts workshops and special events.

Mary Beth hopes guests leave with more than a workout or a meal.

“I want people to find community here,” she says.

Photos by Gina Horan