Who said you can’t have your plate and eat it too?
Sweetgreen, a restaurant which will serve salads, wraps and frozen yogurt, is slated to open this May underneath the Radian at 3925 Walnut Street.
Nick Bosch, general manager of Sweetgreen’s Ardmore, Pa. location, explained that all its products, from utensils to bowls, are made of corn plastic. “It’s all actually edible,” he said. “Though I don’t recommend it, of course.”
Georgetown alumni Nicolas Jammet, Jonathan Newman and Nathaniel Ru founded the company in 2007 and opened a storefront on campus just two months after they graduated.
Their arrival at Penn brings the Radian’s retail to full occupancy and marks the ninth location of the “fast casual oasis,” as it is described on their website.
Sweetgreen’s operations are entirely sustainable, as the restaurant offsets 100 percent of its energy with wind energy credits. The restaurant uses organic local foods and hormone-free, antibiotic-free and all natural produce while the furniture is made entirely from reclaimed wood.
“Given that Sweetgreen has been such a huge hit at Georgetown, I’m sure it will be a great addition to Penn,” Wharton freshman Eliza Goode said.
“People are definitely going to enjoy the atmosphere and the feel-good mentality of eating healthy, local foods,” she added.
Ru said that when he attended Georgetown, healthy options were few and far between. “Eating healthy is costly with all the preparation that goes into it, so we wanted a place to make it both easy and fun,” he said.
College freshman Victoria Pisini is happy to see an alternative healthy option in the area. “It sounds like a great concept and perfect for that block, which is currently only full of high-calorie meal options.”
Ru noted that in coming to Penn, he hoped to address the similar “lack of healthy options” he experienced at Georgetown.
Though Sweetgreen is not slated to open for three months, Ru and his co-founders have already created buzz on campus. This week, they will begin a contest as explained on the panels occupying their future space. By taking a picture of a bicycle in front of the door, posting it on Facebook and securing the most “likes,” students will win a brand new bicycle and promote “eco-friendly transportation,” Ru said.
Sweetgreen will be giving two bicycles away in the next two months.
“We wanted to get the students involved beforehand in creating buzz and giving some cool swag away,” Ru added.
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