Beth C.
Yelp
I am loving the proliferation of fast-casual healthy restaurants. Back home, I am a CoreLife Eatery junky and also a huge fan of Ziingo, which is locally owned but doesn't have eat-in seating.
While in DC, I discovered two chains that offer their own interesting takes on the fast-casual healthy premise. I liked Sweetgreen WAY better than Cava, and think if they opened one in Kalamazoo I might have to just live there.
Most things in DC were two to three times as expensive as they are back in Kalamazoo, whereas Sweetgreen offered the best meal I had out East for a whopping $11. I had the Harvest Bowl, which featured wild rice, kale, apples, sweet potatoes, roasted chicken, local goat cheese, toasted almonds, and a boatload of balsamic vinaigrette. I'm drooling on myself right now remembering it. The sweet potatoes were perfectly prepared, which is not something you especially expect at a fast casual spot, and all the flavors and textures were amazing together.
I feel like the variety of menu items here certainly outpaces Cava and slightly outperforms CoreLife, and while CoreLife has more drink options than Sweetgreen, they haven't yet jumped on that acqua fresca train that's so popular out East, and which is much less calorific than the lemonades on offer at CoreLife.
If CoreLife and Sweetgreen got together and had a big salad baby, it would so be my bae!