Salad Days: The Bar Is Back

You can file this one under the heading “everything old is new again,” as younger diners, contemporary  chefs and the food press rush headlong to embrace the salad bar. It’s clearly a case of déjà vu all over again, since salad bars first appeared in the mass-market some five decades ago. Popularized by fast growing casual-dining chains like Steak & Ale and Ruby Tuesday, their novelty appealed to an emerging generation of Baby-Boomer diners.

Salad bars proliferated throughout the latter part of the last century before losing their luster and falling from favor. Like their foodservice forebears the buffet and the cafeteria lines, they succumbed to a tired image and were outclassed by more interesting alternatives, notably, the entrée salad, an innovation that began in California and took the country by storm in the 1980s, and the roaring success of the classic Caesar salad--unexpectedly topped with chicken--that appeared around the same time.

Soon restaurateurs were falling all over themselves to create interesting composed salads, often with exotic greens and upscale dressings. Wendy’s, which had been the first major fast-food chain to introduce a salad bar in 1979, pulled the plug in 1997. In an article reporting the chain’s introduction of its two newest salads in 2014, USA Today noted that Wendy's still enjoys a halo of health burnished by the bar, but sells three times as much salad today as it did back in the bar’s heyday.

It appears that a number of factors play into the current resurgence of the salad bar, including the new generation of Millennial diners who haven’t been exposed to its charms, but who place a premium on the ability to customize their meals. Accordingly, new-age salad bars generally boast a dizzying array of options, as at Restaurant Beatrix in Chicago, where 100 selections are on the bar, including trendy ingredients like bulgar and quinoa, chef-prepared salads like Gazpacho and Salmon Dill Pasta, and homemade dressings like lime-cilantro vinaigrette. Items are sourced locally where possible and change with the seasons.

Supermarket chains have bellied up to the bar as well, often proffering both hot and cold food items; Whole Foods, which has been especially aggressive with its salad-bar program, even has a Smoked Bar that tempts with numerous cured meats that can accompany a freshly made salad. At Main & Vine, the small-format concept store recently opened by Kroger Co., customers can choose made-to-order salads, a variant on the popular approach taken by fast-casual salad chains like New-York City’s Tossed, an early entrant in the category. In this model, chef-coated salad preparers stand behind the line and create each dish to the customer’s specifications.

If history is any guide, these next-gen salad bars will sizzle until they fizzle. They’ll likely be done in by an even fresher approach to freshness and/or by consumers, who will grow tired of the do-it-yourself approach that is part and parcel of the salad-bar experience.