Sweetgreen NoMad

What I'm about to admit may seem a bit embarrassing for someone of my gender, but I ain't ashamed. I'm abnormally obsessed with salad. I don't eat it because it's allegedly healthy, or because I want to be skinny. I eat all the damn roughage because it's delicious. If I was stranded on a desert island and only allowed one food item for the rest of my life, I would choose salad (although cereal, as long as there was milk and a variety, would be a close second). And if the powers that be decided to be generous, they'd throw the entire Sweetgreen salad bar my way.

Now that the cat is out of the bag, you might understand why we're throwing a full review towards the first NYC outpost of this beloved DC-area chain. Sweetgreen has arrived in New York and, judging by the lines, there are plenty of people equally as excited about this situation as I am. Sweetgreen is simply the best at the make-your-own assembly line style salad. You know, the kind we all line up for at lunch time. Their ingredients are all organic, local, and fresh, and their salads are so much better than what you're used to eating in this mix, match, and toss situation. Additionally, they serve flavored iced teas, cold-pressed juices, and soft-serve frozen yogurt too. I now come here once a week for lunch, even though I have to get on the subway to do so. It's that good.

We've been impressed with how nice and well designed everything is here. It's a serious take-out operation you might actually want to hang out and eat in, which is pretty rare. They clearly put an emphasis on service, but they're friendly to a fault. While some amicable chit chat is nice, let's not lose focus. We're here to cook up a salad together, not make weekend plans.

Even before landing in NYC, Sweetgreen has done a fantastic job branding themselves. They've managed to create a lifestyle around salad, which is damn impressive. You may have heard of SweetLife Festival in Baltimore, the two year old music and food festival that Phoenix, Passion Pit and Kendrick Lamar headlined this year. Yup, that's their festival. Music and food, our kind of people.

The bottom line is that Sweetgreen is a salad game changer, and one that's going to do incredibly well in New York. They've officially put Chopt on notice, and we expect to see another 20 of these pop up across the city within the next year or so. If anyone would like to go on a salad lunch date, you now know my destination of choice.