Diners and meal preparers in Gadsden and Etowah County will soon have a new option to get healthy, tasty and locally sourced food, quickly and at affordable prices.
Salads 2 Go plans a grand opening on June 13 at 118 Chestnut St., adjacent to The Stone Market.
It’s an offshoot of Gardens on Air, a hydroponic produce growing operation launched 14 years ago by Lee and LeeAnn Harrison, although it is a separate business.
Gardens on Air’s greens, herbs, microgreens and lettuce are seen in Alabama school systems and in markets and restaurants across the state.
Lee Harrison — who is a partner in the new venture; Lara Littjejohn, Gardens on Air’s chief operating officer, is its CEO — stressed that Salads 2 Go will be more of a market than a restaurant,
That is in response to consumer trends that show people are moving away from traditional sit-down dining toward a “walk in and walk out” experience.
“We’re trying to get ahead of the curve,” he said.
The storefront will have coolers displaying the various salads that will be prepared fresh daily and packaged in 24- or 32-ounce containers, so they’ll be substantial in size. There are plans to offer even larger, family meal capacity salads later on.
As many ingredients as possible — Justin Nelson, Gardens on Air’s chief marketing officer, said cheese has been a challenge — will be farm to table from local or at least Alabama sources, either from the company’s main growing location in the old Gregerson’s store on U.S. Highway 278 in Hokes Bluff or through the Sweet Grown Alabama network it’s part of.
The market’s menu will have a variety of offerings, some with unique local names. “Instead of trying to rely on a traditional type of salad, like a garden, we wanted to different things,” said Nelson. “We’ll do an Asian salad and a fruit salad, and of course we’ll do a classic house salad.”
Nelson also has worked with King’s Olive Oil to come up with specific balsamic vinegar and olive oil dressings for each salad, although ranch dressing will be available for the non-adventurous.
“The emphasis for us has been on flavor,” he said. “Unique flavors that you can’t get anywhere else. A friend of mine posted on Facebook that a fast food restaurant had the best Asian salad in town. I took that as a personal challenge that I can do better than that, I can provide better and healthier alternatives.”
Harrison promised those alternatives will be available “at the lowest prices anywhere,” for what he called “a premium product.” He said the cost of dining healthy has often been a roadblock to people actually doing it, but thinks through volume and proper price points this new endeavor can change that while still being profitable.
Littlejohn said 24-ounce salads will be $7 and 30-ounce salads $12. Caprese salads will be one size, priced at $12.
There also will be a $5 salad special each day, something Harrison said he feels strongly about.
“It may be a Mediterranean salad one day, it may be Bacon, Lettuce and Cheese the next day,” he said. “If someone comes in that doesn’t have a lot of money, we want to have something they can afford.
“One thing we don’t want is for somebody to walk in and feel like everything is so high they can’t eat,” he said. “We’ve all been there before, where you’re hungry and you’ve got $5 or $6 in your pocket, and that’s it. You’d go to Taco Bell, but that’s gotten too high.”
Littlejohn said, “A lot of people don’t like eating healthy because of the flavor and the price. We’re trying to eliminate those two issues. You can afford it, and you can have the flavor you’re looking for.”
Another priority will be speed. “When people walk in, their time is important,” Harrison said “A lot of people downtown don’t have time to wait at a restaurant. We’re just trying to give them a healthy alternative where they won’t have to wait.”
Nelson noted that traditional restaurants are having trouble attracting people to prepare, serve or deliver food.
Harrison said with their concept, people can walk in — likely looking at their phones — grab their food from a pick-up point and go about their business.
Salads 2 Go will offer other locally sourced goods, such as Hebrews Coffee and Haney and Cold Creek honey, will be available, as will Gardens on Air’s cold-pressed juices, Harmony Hydration ph 9.0 alkaline water and nut butters (almond, cashew, peanut).
There are plans in the future to offer free-range, grass-fed, hormone-free meats from area providers.
There also will be some hydroponic growing stations, including microgreens grown on site, to give people an idea of the process.
Hydroponic vegetables are grown in rafts suspended in water reservoirs; their roots are fed and nourished by a nutrient solution and are oxygenated by air pumps.
“We don’t use any chemicals or pesticides,” Harrison said. “They know who we are, they can look on our website and have seen us in grocery stores, so it’s not like we’re somebody they don’t know.”
It specializes in butter lettuce, but Nelson said they’ll add miniature romaine, which has a fast growth turnaround, for variety.
Salads 2 Go will initially be open from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Monday through Saturday, focusing on lunch, but expanded hours are another possibility, to allow time-pressed people to stop by and grab salads for dinner.
“We’ll eventually have family size salads,” Harrison said, “so if Mom is coming home from work and doesn’t have time to cook and wants a healthy version of something, we’ll have a big enough portion. Or they can call us and say they need to feed eight, we can make something big enough, where they’d spend $100 for eight salads at a restaurant.”