Salad chain to redevelop Main Street parcel

Aerial of the corner parcel outlined in red at a busy Main Street intersection, with a small building and parking.

Salad and Go, a rapidly growing drive-thru restaurant chain, will soon redevelop a corner of a prominent Norman intersection.

The privately held non-franchise chain, based in Phoenix, Arizona, filed an $600,000 building permit for 1200 West Main Street, the south west corner of Main Street and Berry Road catty-corner from Norman High School, according to city records.

The site, currently occupied by Wise Guys Auto Glass, was listed for sale in January of this year for $699,000 and has been under contract since March. Terms of the sale were not available at the time of publication.

Founded in 2013, Salad and Go focuses on small and efficient locations typically under 1,000 square feet, which they refer to as a “micro-footprint,” and situated along high traffic corridors. Locations are drive-thru or walk up only, focusing on speed of service, quality of products, and minimizing overhead and costs. The company employs a mobile app for pre-ordering.

The menu includes eight curated selections or build-you-own in a choice of salad or wrap form with three protein choices. Soup and protein boxes are available as sides, while breakfast options are served daily until 10:30am on weekdays and 11:00am on weekends. Their food philosophy is “using fresh, whole and natural ingredients” according to their website.

Salad and Go’s efficiencies in size and model lead to easy scalability and affordability in their products, with their standard salads and wraps are priced under $7 and breakfast items priced under $4.

The chain entered the Oklahoma market in late 2022 and has since expanded to eight locations across the state. To provide ingredients to their stores they operate two food production centers, a location in Phoenix and a location in Dallas, who gather produce from local farms and ship it to their various locations.

Current Oklahoma locations include two in Oklahoma City, Edmond with a second location under construction, Del City, Tulsa, Broken Arrow, Jenks, and Owasso.

According to the company’s website, they currently operate 118 locations, with an additional 20 locations currently under construction, throughout Arizona, Nevada, Texas, and Oklahoma.

Aerial overview of the small W. Main Street parcel outlined in red at S. Berry Road, near Dutch Bros., Stella Nova, Norman High School, and the Habitat ReStore.

Wider regional aerial of the W. Main Street salad-chain parcel outlined in red near Norman High School, Walgreens, Downtown Norman, and Andrews Park.

Street-level photo of the vacant 'Wise Guys' auto-glass and dent-repair shop on the parcel — a white cinderblock building with two garage doors and a tall sign, Dutch Bros. behind it.