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Salad bar-style buffet chains have struggled financially since the Covid-19 pandemic.
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The Souper Salad buffet restaurant chain has dropped from about 150 locations to just three.
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Formerly defunct Sweet Tomatoes plans to open two locations after going out of business during the Covid-19 pandemic.
The growth of salad bar chain restaurants in the 1980s accelerated in the 1990s and early 2000s as the restaurant concept became popular.
The salad bar buffet restaurant chains Sweet Tomatoes and its sister Souplantation, which were founded in San Diego, and Souper Salad in Dallas, both launched in 1978. Another popular chain, Fresh Choice, launched in California in 1986.
I remember the start of the salad bar craze in the early 1980s when I dined at a casual restaurant called The Salad Bar along the K Street Mall in Sacramento in 1982.
Unfortunately, the restaurant didn’t last long, but other salad bar restaurant chains like Sizzler and Wendy’s filled the void until the industry thrived.
Souper Salad expanded to more than 150 locations by the early 2000s, but industry headwinds and a decline in consumer confidence led it to file for bankruptcy in 2011 and continue to close restaurants, according to Nation’s Restaurant News.
The restaurant chain today has just three locations in Lubbock, Pasadena and El Paso, Texas.
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6703 Slide Road, Lubbock, Texas
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5822 Fairmont Parkway, Pasadena, Texas
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8900 Viscount Blvd., El Paso, Texas Source
Fresh Choice filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy on July 24, 2012, according to PacerMonitor, and closed its remaining 20 locations in December 2012.
The owner of Sweet Tomatoes and Souplantation filed for Chapter 11 in 2016, and then four years later, the buffet restaurant chain filed for Chapter 7 liquidation and permanently closed its 97 locations after the Covid-19 pandemic forced the closure, according to Nation’s Restaurant News.
Sweet Tomatoes has announced its return in 2025 as new owners ST Three LLC said they will open new locations in Tucson, Ariz. and Fort Myers, Fla., Gulfshore Business reported.
The Covid-19 pandemic devastated the salad bar/dining buffet concept in 2020, as buffet restaurants closed across the country as the pandemic imposed strict health requirements on restaurants and consumers became fearful of eating at such establishments.
After Fresh Choice went out of business in 2012, another salad restaurant concept launched in Gilbert, Arizona in 2013 – Salad and Go’s fast-food drive-thru chain, which has reached more than 140 restaurant locations by May 2025.