On the heels of launching its initial public offering on Monday, fast-casual restaurant chain Sweetgreen has unveiled the design for its newest location, which focuses on outdoor seating and flexible spaces, and opens Friday.
The unit, located in Tower 3 of the World Trade Center in New York City, omits indoor seating entirely and instead uses the space for a newly designed, flexible pick-up section.
“Our design team really focused on the engineering of the pick-up station because we knew we wanted our shelving to be mobile,” said Pamela Haber, head of real estate, east for Sweetgreen. “We are building our stores with the flexibility to transform throughout the day to provide our customers and team members a safe environment and keep them connected to real food.”
This pick-up station can move between inside and outside.
“In the last year, we’ve seen a greater shift toward open-air and outdoor dining experiences and wanted to ensure that we’re delivering on that for our customers,” Haber said.
The 2,360-square-foot unit — one of the first businesses to open in Tower 3 — drew design inspiration from the Oculus, the transportation hub adjacent to the restaurant.
While this isn’t the first Sweetgreen unit to feature only outdoor dining, customers can expect to see more of this model in the future.
“We’ve always listened to our customers’ needs and wants to ensure they have a pleasurable experience dining with us. All of Sweetgreen’s locations are designed with the customer in mind, and in the last year, we’ve seen more customers opting for open-air and outdoor dining experiences,” said Haber.
Haber mentioned that growth is on the horizon for the 121-unit brand, a sentiment that was echoed in the Culver City, Calif.-based chain’s public filing as well.
“We’re really focused on our mission — building healthier communities by connecting people to real food,” Haber told Nation’s Restaurant News. “We’re excited to continue to grow our customer base and we anticipate [doubling] our footprint over the next 3 to 5 years.”
Take a look inside the newest Sweetgreen location.
