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Sweetgreen launches ‘Plates’ for dinner at restaurants in response to coronavirusSweetgreen launches ‘Plates’ for dinner at restaurants in response to coronavirus

Chain accelerates rollout to appeal to customers eating at home

Bret Thorn, Senior Food Editor

April 30, 2020

3 Min Read
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Sweetgreen, a fast-casual restaurant best known for its salads, is making a play for the dinner daypart with a new line of “Plates.” It’s the Los Angeles-based chain’s first new menu category since it introduced warm grain bowls in 2016.

Priced at around $14, the Plates feature flavored proteins with vegetables, whole grains and beans.

In a press release, the chain of 105 locations said it had originally planned to introduce the line next year, but it sped up plans “to cater to requests for warm satisfying options as families are spending more time around the dinner table.”

Nicolas Jammet, the chain’s co-founder and chief concept officer, said he hoped the new items would appeal to guests during these difficult times.

“We’re continuing to look for ways to evolve our offerings as the needs of our guests change due to the impact of COVID-19,” he said. “With Plates, our goal is to​ help create meaningful connections and good-for-you dining experiences during times where it may seem hard to do so. We hope these new items invoke the warm, comforting feeling of home cooked food, paired with quality ingredients and rich flavors that are unique to Sweetgreen.”

The Plates are available in packaging free of PFAS with square plates. Unlike Sweetgreen’s other menu items, these items are plated like a traditional meal, with the entrée and sides placed next to each other rather than jumbled together in a bowl.

Related:Menu Tracker: New items from Chipotle Mexican Grill, Denny’s and Dunkin’

The chain is donating one Plate to healthcare workers for each Plate purchase.

Sweetgreen has used its Outpost operations — a sort of pop-up kiosk traditionally set up in office buildings and other high-density areas for people to pick up their orders — to feed healthcare workers. It has donated more than 100,000 meals to more than 130 hospitals in partnership with José Andrés’ World Central Kitchen.

The new Plates are:

Chicken Chimichurri: Chicken thigh, hot roasted sweet potatoes, seasoned black beans, pickled carrots & celery, baby spinach, cilantro, feta cheese, riced cauliflower and chimichurri sauce

Hot Honey Chicken: Chicken thigh, hot roasted sweet potatoes, kale-cabbage slaw, roasted almonds, warm quinoa, baby spinach and hot honey mustard sauce

Miso Chicken: Chicken thigh, kale-cabbage slaw, basil, cilantro, wild rice, riced cauliflower, baby spinach and miso sesame ginger dressing

Cashew Sweet Potato: Roasted tofu “steaks,” hot roasted sweet potato, basil, tomatoes, lentils, raw carrots, spicy sunflower seeds, riced cauliflower, baby spinach, lemon squeeze and spicy cashew dressing

Related:The Anti-Goldilocks syndrome: Tiny bites and extra-large meals are dominating menus instead of ‘normal’ portions

Green Goddess Steelhead: Roasted steelhead trout (shrimp in Texas), pickled carrots & celery, basil, cilantro, tomatoes, roasted almonds, riced cauliflower, warm wild rice, baby spinach and green goddess ranch dressing

Mushroom Burrito: Warm portobello mushroom mix, avocado, black beans, tomatoes, cilantro, red onions, warm wild rice, riced cauliflower, baby spinach and lime cilantro jalapeno vinaigrette

Sweetgreen also has introduced two new sides for around $4, depending on location:

Spicy Pesto Sweet Potatoes: Hot roasted sweet potatoes, spicy cashew dressing and pesto vinaigrette

Cauli Rice & Beans: Riced cauliflower, black beans, feta cheese and lime cilantro vinaigrette

For our most up-to-date coverage, visit the coronavirus homepage.

Learn lessons in leadership during a crisis from our panel of experts on Friday, May 1.

Contact Bret Thorn at [email protected] 

Follow him on Twitter: @foodwriterdiary

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About the Author

Bret Thorn

Senior Food Editor, Nation's Restaurant News

Senior Food & Beverage Editor

Bret Thorn is senior food & beverage editor for Nation’s Restaurant News and Restaurant Hospitality for Informa’s Restaurants and Food Group, with responsibility for spotting and reporting on food and beverage trends across the country for both publications as well as guiding overall F&B coverage. 

He is the host of a podcast, In the Kitchen with Bret Thorn, which features interviews with chefs, food & beverage authorities and other experts in foodservice operations.

From 2005 to 2008 he also wrote the Kitchen Dish column for The New York Sun, covering restaurant openings and chefs’ career moves in New York City.

He joined Nation’s Restaurant News in 1999 after spending about five years in Thailand, where he wrote articles about business, banking and finance as well as restaurant reviews and food columns for Manager magazine and Asia Times newspaper. He joined Restaurant Hospitality’s staff in 2016 while retaining his position at NRN. 

A magna cum laude graduate of Tufts University in Medford, Mass., with a bachelor’s degree in history, and a member of Phi Beta Kappa, Thorn also studied traditional French cooking at Le Cordon Bleu Ecole de Cuisine in Paris. He spent his junior year of college in China, studying Chinese language, history and culture for a semester each at Nanjing University and Beijing University. While in Beijing, he also worked for ABC News during the protests and ultimate crackdown in and around Tiananmen Square in 1989.

Thorn’s monthly column in Nation’s Restaurant News won the 2006 Jesse H. Neal National Business Journalism Award for best staff-written editorial or opinion column.

He served as president of the International Foodservice Editorial Council, or IFEC, in 2005.

Thorn wrote the entry on comfort food in the Oxford Encyclopedia of Food and Drink in America, 2nd edition, published in 2012. He also wrote a history of plated desserts for the Oxford Companion to Sugar and Sweets, published in 2015.

He was inducted into the Disciples d’Escoffier in 2014.

A Colorado native originally from Denver, Thorn lives in Brooklyn, N.Y.

Bret Thorn’s areas of expertise include food and beverage trends in restaurants, French cuisine, the cuisines of Asia in general and Thailand in particular, restaurant operations and service trends. 

Bret Thorn’s Experience: 

Nation’s Restaurant News, food & beverage editor, 1999-Present
New York Sun, columnist, 2005-2008 
Asia Times, sub editor, 1995-1997
Manager magazine, senior editor and restaurant critic, 1992-1997
ABC News, runner, May-July, 1989

Education:
Tufts University, BA in history, 1990
Peking University, studied Chinese language, spring, 1989
Nanjing University, studied Chinese language and culture, fall, 1988 
Le Cordon Bleu Ecole de Cuisine, Cértificat Elémentaire, 1986

Email: [email protected]

Social Media:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bret-thorn-468b663/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bret.thorn.52
Twitter: @foodwriterdiary
Instagram: @foodwriterdiary

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