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The salad bar-style self-serve chain has struggled financially since the Covid-19 pandemic.
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Salad cafeteria chain Souper Salad has seen its number of locations drop from about 150 to just three.
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Previously closed Sweet Tomatoes plans to open two locations following the closure during the Covid-19 pandemic.
The rise of salad bar chain restaurants in the 1980s accelerated in the 1990s and early 2000s as the restaurant concept gained popularity.
Salad bar cafeteria chain Sweet Tomatoes and its San Diego-based sister restaurants Souplantation and Dallas-based Souper Salad both opened in 1978. Another popular chain, Fresh Choice, opened in California in 1986.
I remember the dawn of the salad craze in the early 1980s, and in 1982 I dined at a casual restaurant called The Salad Bar in the K Street Mall in Sacramento.
Unfortunately, the restaurant didn’t last long, but other chain restaurants with salad bars, such as Sizzler and Wendy’s, filled the gap until the industry boomed.
By the early 2000s, Souper Salad had expanded to more than 150 locations, but industry headwinds and declining consumer confidence led to a bankruptcy filing in 2011 and continued restaurant closures, according to Nation’s Restaurant News.
The restaurant chain currently has just three locations in Lubbock, Pasadena and El Paso, Texas.
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6703 Slide Road, Lubbock, Texas
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5822 Fairmont Parkway, Pasadena, Texas
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8900 Viscount Blvd., El Paso, Texas
According to PacerMonitor, Fresh Choice filed for bankruptcy under Chapter 7 of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code on July 24, 2012, and closed its remaining 20 stores in December 2012.
The owners of Sweet Tomatoes and Souplantation filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in 2016, and four years later, the cafeteria chain filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy and permanently closed its 97 locations after the Covid-19 pandemic forced the closures, Nation’s Restaurant News reported.
According to Gulfshore Business, Sweet Tomatoes announced that it will make a comeback in 2025, and new owner ST Three LLC said they will open new stores in Tucson, Arizona, and Fort Myers, Florida.
The Covid-19 pandemic devastated the salad bar/buffet concept in 2020, as the pandemic imposed strict health requirements on restaurants, buffet-style restaurants closed across the country, and consumers became fearful of dining in such establishments.
After Fresh Choice disappeared in 2012, another salad restaurant concept launched in 2013 in Gilbert, Arizona – Salad and Go, a drive-thru fast-food chain that had grown to more than 140 restaurants by May 2025.
