The popular NYC salad chain is gearing up to open a new store at one of the city’s busiest intersection.
Just Salad is a popular fast-casual chain of restaurants that serves, you guessed it, salad. The brand was established by owner Nick Kenner in 2006, after leaving his position as an assistant trader for a hedge fund management company. When buying lunch for his team, he noticed that while everyone would be ordering a salad, there weren’t many places in Midtown where he could find the kind of high-quality salads that he and his fellow traders were looking for. As a true entrepreneur, Kenner decided that if no one else was going to meet the market’s needs, he would just have to do it himself.
In May 2006, Kenner launched the company’s first location on East 51st street with co-founder Rob Crespi. Placing a special emphasis on sustainability (which was a relatively innovative concept back in 2006), Kenner set himself apart from the competition by incentivizing customers to bring back their reusable salad bowl. With the simple purchase of a $1 reusable bowl, customers who bring the bowl back to the store are awarded with one additional free topping, such as avocados, which can run an additional $2, saving customers money over the long run while also significantly reducing the plastic waste produced by Just Salad.
Today, Kenner has transformed Just Salad into one of the city’s fastest growing health-conscious food chains, and now operates over 30 locations across states like New York, New Jersey, Florida, and North Carolina. And while it may sound heretical, Just Salad serves a lot more than just salad. In addition to their popular salad options, the restaurant also offers a wide array of warm bowls like their chicken fajita bowl and spicy tofu crunch, as wraps like the buffalo chicken wrap and spicy chicken caesar wrap, alongside sides like avocado toast and soups like spiced pumpkin bisque and chicken noodle soup.
Now, as Just Salad continues to grow in popularity, Kenner and the team have just secured the lease for a brand new space in Midtown. The next Just Salad to hit NYC will be opening up at 4 Columbus Circle, where the company has leased a 1,825 square foot space on the ground floor, located on the corner of Eighth Avenue and West 58th street.
Most recently, Just Salad launched their 30th New York location at 464 Seventh Avenue at the end of October. Additionally, according to Kenner there are more plans in place to open two new locations next year at 670 Columbus Avenue on the Upper West Side and at 461 Dean Street, in Downtown Brooklyn. For more information, you can follow Just Salad on Instagram for updates on all of their latest expansions.
