Delicious (and Nutritious!) - The Sweet and The Green

This is the first post of a whenever-I-feel-like-it series about yummy things. Today’s inaugural post is about Sweetgreen! If you are not from the DC area you may not be familiar with this heavenly place. Allow me to enlighten you:

On their website they describe themselves as “fast-casual dining.” They offer salads (either pre-menu-ed or make-your-own) that are all made from fresh, local and orgranic ingredients. They make, quite simply, the best salads in the world. Even those who are not ‘salad people’ can be turned into converts after one trip here. And if you still have room after your salad (and you’re having a sneaky non-vegan day) you can always get dessert. ‘Sweetflow’ is their tart frozen yogurt to which you can add a number of fresh fruit toppings, granola, and other delectable goodies. It’s all natural, fat free, and full of live active cultures (mmm cultures). And if all of that is not enough to make you try the place then at least do so for their eco-friendly approach to dining: their restaurants are built from reclaimed materials, they use compostable packaging including their utensils, they power their business through wind and solar power, and they compost unused food scraps and recycle as much of their materials as possible. All in all a very progressive place!

The company was started by some Georgetown University students a few years back. Their first store is about the size of a closet and is located right on M Street in Georgetown DC, a major shopping hubbub and also luckily 2 blocks from my Mom’s house. When I was living home towards the end of college we frequented Sweetgreen on a weekly if not daily basis. And still, whenever my sister or I are home it is traditional that we make a trip (or 2) for lunch!

So you can imagine my excitement when I found out that Sweetgreen was coming to Philly! ‘Beside myself’ would be a good way to describe it. It was actually a freak accident that I came upon it. Their location here is just off of Penn campus where I work. One day a few months ago I happened to head up to that spot planning to hit up a Middle Eastern place for lunch. Needless to say I quickly abandoned my previously made lunch plans when I ran into Sweetgreen’s newest location. I was so excited when I went inside and I mentioned to the staff how much I loved their company and how I used to live right next to their original store. Then, for being such a loyal customer, they gave me a 40% discount on my salad! Extra super awesome!

Unfortunately I haven’t made it up there as much as I’d like. I try to bring my lunch to work everyday to cut down on costs. Fridays I usually splurge and eat out, but with all of the insane heat we’ve been having it’s hard to convince myself to walk the 30 minute round trip. However, I was thrilled this past weekend though when my sister came for the Midnight Madness race. Being that the race was at night time instead of the early A.M. like usual we had to consider our dinner options carefully. It’s no fun running on an overly full stomach! This was the perfect opportunity to hit up Sweetgreen and Caitlin was especially excited since they haven’t migrated to NYC yet where she lives. She even picked up a second salad to eat for breakfast on the bus ride home the next morning!