Fast-casual salad slinger Sweetgreen opened its fourth Orange County location on Tuesday, Aug. 6 in Newport Beach’s Fashion Island. This marks the Los Angeles-based company’s second OC location with an Infinite Kitchen, which uses automated food-preparing technology.
The company’s automated technology works like so: Guests can either order via an app or mosey up to the store counter with touch tablets where they place their own orders. An estimated wait time will appear on the screen after placing their order, somewhere between three to five minutes. Behind the counter, a Sweetgreen worker places a bowl on Infinite Kitchen’s conveyor belt. The bowl then travels under temperature-controlled cabinets with see-through tubes that drop sundry ingredients like proteins, greens, grains, dressings and toppings. Once the bowl reaches the finish line, a staff member tends to the dish by affixing lids, adding additional items and then hands it off to the customer.
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The automated technology, which customers can see in action while waiting for their order, can create an estimated 500 salads and bowls per hour, roughly 50% faster than humans can. Sweetgreen’s newest Infinite Kitchen joins the company’s other stores with similar technology in Naperville, IL; Huntington Beach, CA; and New York City’s Penn Plaza.
“Based on what we know today, we expect the Infinite Kitchen to cost between $450,000 and $550,000 and generate at least seven points of margin improvement as well as deliver significant second-order benefits,” Mitch Reback, chief financial officer for Sweetgreen, said on a fourth-quarter and full-year earnings call in March, according to Nation’s Restaurant News.
The Newport Beach Sweetgreen features indoor seating for 24 diners indoors and 16 guests on the patio. Menu items include salads, bowls and a new caramelized garlic steak. The company also sources some of its ingredients locally, like bread from Santa Ana-based Bread Artisan or goat cheese from Drake’s Family Farms.
Sweetgreen was founded in 2006 by Nicolas Jammet, Nathaniel Ru and Jonathan Neman. According to the company’s narrative, the trio, who met while students at Georgetown University, grew tired of the unhealthy and overpriced food options on campus, sparking the idea for Sweetgreen.
Find it: 853 Newport Center Drive, Newport Beach
