Salad and Go
Cheap drive-thru salads: the chain grew to nearly 150 restaurants, then closed every one in August 2026
- Founded
- 2013
- Closed
- 2026
- Lifespan
- 13 years
- Country
- United States
- City
- Phoenix
- Sector
- Food and drink
- Founders
- Tony Christofellis, Roushan Christofellis, Daniel Patino
- Investors
- Volt Investment Holdings
- At its peak
- Nearly 150 restaurants under chief executive Charlie Morrison
- Cause of closure
- Business model failed
What did it do?
Salad and Go was a fast food chain founded in Arizona in 2013 that sold salads through drive-thru windows from tiny buildings with no seating. Tony and Roushan Christofellis started it with chef Daniel Patino. The founders partnered with private equity firm Volt Investment Holdings in 2016 and had fully left by 2021. Charlie Morrison, recruited from Wingstop, took over in 2022 and grew the chain to nearly 150 restaurants.
Why did it shut down?
Under Volt the company moved quickly into Texas, opening more than 60 restaurants there within a few years. It announced 41 closures in September 2025, and 32 more in January 2026 took it out of Texas and Oklahoma altogether. Technomic data showed 70 locations at the end of 2025, down 52.1% in a year. Average unit volumes fell by more than 11% between 2022 and 2025. The company filed for Chapter 11 in Houston on 4 August 2026 and closed its last 70 restaurants on 5 August 2026. According to an October 2026 report, a group including co-founder Daniel Patino bought the brand and plans to reopen, though no restaurant had opened at that point.
The story
Salad and Go had a simple idea: no seats, a tiny building and a salad passed through a car window. Starting in Arizona in 2013, that simplicity let the chain run very cheaply.
Then the ambition grew. The founders partnered with Volt Investment Holdings in 2016, disagreed over growth strategy and had fully left by 2021. Former Wingstop chief Charlie Morrison arrived in 2022 and took the chain to nearly 150 restaurants, more than 60 of them in Texas. His successor, Mike Tattersfield, later called that growth flawed, because it needed a large central kitchen built for hundreds of restaurants.
The retreat was quick. Forty-one restaurants closed from September 2025 and 32 more in January 2026. In July 2026 a cyclospora outbreak with no link to the chain made people wary of lettuce. The Chapter 11 petition came on 4 August 2026, and the last 70 restaurants shut the next day. Most buildings went to coffee chains. In October 2026 the brand passed to a group including co-founder Patino, which plans to reopen.
Lessons for founders
- If you build the central kitchen first and try to fill the region later, your fixed costs peak before anyone knows your name. Enter a new state only once a single store there stands on its own.
- If you and your investor disagree on growth speed, settle it in the contract. Here the disagreement ended with the founders leaving, and the people who knew the product were outside the company.
- If openings rise while sales per store fall, you are adding load, not business. Salad and Go's average unit volumes fell from 2022 to 2025; tie your opening pace to that number.
Sources
- Salad and Go closes all locations, files Chapter 11 bankruptcy (Nation's Restaurant News, 2026-08-05)
- Salad and Go files for Chapter 11, closes 70 stores (Restaurant Dive, 2026-08-05)
- Salad and Go's co-founder is bringing the brand back from the dead (Nation's Restaurant News, 2026-10-14)
- Salad and Go founder: here's why the company collapsed (AZ Big Media, 2026-09-10)
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