Salad Contender Sweetgreen Expanding to San Diego

A major player in the fast-casual space is finally adding San Diego to its footprint. Sweetgreen, the popular Los Angeles-based chain that operates more than 100 stores across the U.S., will open its first area location in Carlsbad at the Beacon La Costa, a North County complex whose dining roster is shaping up impressively, with Shake Shack, Jeni’s Splendid Ice Creams, and The Wise Ox already announced as incoming tenants.

Jim McPhail, Sweetgreen’s chief development officer tells Eater that the company has been looking for the right place to land in San Diego where it could be part of a community hangout and build the kind of kitchen it needs for the restaurant’s from-scratch menu. Though Sweetgreen is mostly known as a go-to urban lunch spot, the Beacon offers the opportunity to service a more residential neighborhood and continue to expand its dinner business.

With daily produce deliveries, Sweetgreen’s kitchen prepares a rotating seasonal menu of salads, warm bowls, and plates. Its current lineup includes a peach and burrata salad, a fish taco bowl, and a hot honey chicken plate.

The 2,500-square-foot Carlsbad location, which will have an interior dining area as well as a large patio space, is scheduled to launch by early 2022. And McPhail says the company is planning to open at least three more stores in the San Diego area.

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