Fresh Choice
| Company type | Private |
|---|---|
| Genre | Restaurant |
| Founded | 1986 |
| Headquarters | , USA |
Key people | Sandy Boyd, CEO |
| Website | freshchoice.com |
Fresh Choice is a chain of buffet-style restaurants located in California, Washington, and Texas under the names Fresh Choice, Fresh Plus, Fresh Choice Express, and Zoopa. The first restaurant was opened in Sunnyvale, California in 1986 and, as of 2006, and the chain has twenty-nine locations. Corporate headquarters are in Newark, California. There are also three "Express" locations.
Fresh Choice markets itself as a healthier alternative to fast food restaurants with reference to menu options that include low-calorie, low-carbohydrate, and low-fat diets. Outlets feature a large salad bar with prepared salads, salad ingredients, dressings, and condiments. Other self-service bars provide several other kinds of food including soups, pizza and bread. Many locations offer beer, wine, and bottled soft drinks. Food is bought from local farmers and producers, striving to use seasonal, local and organically grown produce. Starting in 2009, the company has embarked on a plan to grow many of its own vegetables. The Sacramento Magazine 2008 Diners' Choice Awards voted Fresh Choice as the restaurant with the most health-conscious menu. [1]
Restaurants use the most energy-efficient lighting, heating, cooling and cooking equipment, to save the environment. Fresh Choice is enrolled in PG&E's Climate Smart Program, through which Fresh Choice makes voluntary, charitable contributions that fund greenhouse gas capture and reduction projects to make its Northern California restaurants' energy usage carbon neutral.[2] Addtionally, Fresh Choice sponsors and participates in events such as 2009 Earth Day in Sacramento, California International Marathon and health fairs.[3]
The company is owned by Crescent Real Estate and Cedarlane Natural Foods post bankruptcy. The company most recently declared bankruptcy in 2004 after expansion into the Los Angeles market failed, and a new expensive state of the art restaurant put into the Westfield Valley Fair Mall failed to take off. In all, it went from over 50 locations at the beginning of 2004 to the point it is at now, including closing several new locations in Texas, all but one of its locations in Washington, all its locations in Southern California, and several throughout the Bay Area and the Central Valley.
Fresh Choice's major competitor is Sweet Tomatoes (known as Souplantation in Southern California).
References
External links
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