"Sweet dreams are made of these
Who am I to disagree?"
(Eurythmics)
Their marketing niche is to "reimagine fast food for a new era" and their websites buzzes you with "a positive force on the food system", "building a transparent supply network", "cook from scratch", "a healthier way to eat ", climate change", "carbon neutral", etc.
They sure have zoomed into prominence since their 2007 start-up when three friends opened their first location in Washington D.C. As of March 2, 2025, there are 924 Sweetgreen locations in the United States. One of their newest is in the Shops at Farmington Valley in Canton, where they took over space previously occupied by Coldwater Creek and a Yankee Candle pop-up store.
So, guess where we went for lunch today?
The space has a very sleek open design with a long ordering counter and bins of greens, grains, proteins, vegetables, salad crunchies, and dressings. There is a window on your left as you wait to order where we saw a guy chopping away at heads of Romaine lettuce and dicing up some gorgeous red apples.
Seating options include plenty of wood-toned booths with light green cushions and a few larger round tables up front that are handicapped accessible.
Most of the menu revolves around Protein Plates, Bowls, and Salads
Protein Plates
Steak, salmon, or chicken with vegetables on a bed of grains. All are between 830 and 930 calories.
Bowls
Steak, salmon, chicken, or tofu with more vegetables and less grains, are between 540 and 830 calories. Seven of their bowls weigh in at more calories (740) than a Burger King Whopper with Cheese.
Salads
Some with and some without a protein with various salad bases and vegetables are between 465 and 745 calories. They include a dressing (up to 210 calories for the balsamic vinaigrette, so modifying your salads accordingly can save you a few hundred calories. BTW, their website has an excellent 13-page nutritional chart if you want to get into the nutritional weeds in advance of ordering.
Like the other salad chain restaurants, you can always customize your own salads, and Sweetgreen's menu also includes sides (Ripple fries are like waffle fries), focaccia bread, roasted sweet potatoes, chips and kid's meals.
For today's lunch, we both created our own salad, and split an order of Ripple Fries and an Olipop Lemon-Lime soda.
The base price for making your own salad is $10.25 with add-ons for protein and certain "Premium" and "Super Premium additions. My wife added Herb Roasted Chicken to hers while I added Blackened Chicken to mine. Each was $3.85, and I also went for a Portobello Mix for $2.25.
My salad included a mix of their green options (Arugula, Baby Spinach, Chopped Romaine, Shredded Kale, and Spring Mix), with the two extra cost chicken and mushrooms, plus four included veggies -I went with tomatoes, sweet potatoes, banana peppers, and spicy broccoli. I topped everything off with a sprinkle of crushed tortilla chips. When all was said and done, my $16ish salad was big, delicious and lasted for two meals.
The $4.85 Ripple Fries were amazing. They were "Freshly cut potatoes, air-fried in avocado oil and seasoned with sea salt + herbs" and served with a unique but absolutely great Pickle Ketchup!
Our $3.85 can of Olipop Soda was pretty good. It's a brand I wasn't familiar with, but you can decide if a 12-ounce can of 50-calorie soda is a solid expense or not.
Service was great -our patient server Anylan did a great job explaining the process to us, and she was pleasant and very efficient,
I can't finish this write-up without commenting on something that really bugged me. We were here at a quarter after one on a Wednesday and the place was packed. I saw half a dozen tables that had CLEARLY finished their lunch but continued to loiter in their booths, gabbing, playing on their phones, and generally occupying space that any common sense and courtesy would dictate they should have vacated.
We ended up guiltily taking a handicapped table for four because the clueless clientele thought it was totally proper behavior to linger in their seats and ignore all the people with trays wandering around like hungry zombies on the Walking Dead. read more