Homegrown salad chain Sweetgreen has reopened its Bethesda Row restaurant in Maryland two months after closing for a major renovation.
The Bethesda Sweetgreen, at 4831 Bethesda Avenue, was outfitted with new digital menu boards and a new dedicated pickup area for online orders.
The 1,800-square foot restaurant also includes an outdoor patio with seating for 22, and indoor sit down dining for up to 26 customers.
Sweetgreen, with nearly 30 locations open in the D.C. area, and more than 145 nationwide, has been experimenting with new store formats. Last fall, it opened its first digital-only pickup location in D.C.’s Mount Vernon neighborhood. It is more or less a self-service operation with no dining area or front-line service.
Customers pick up their orders from shelves and go, and about 60% of Sweetgreen’s orders are digital.
Sweetgreen also brought back dessert to its menu last year, albeit with just one offering: A crispy rice treat made with brown rice, quinoa, puffed millet, roasted sunflower seeds and honey date caramel. Sweetgreen dropped a frozen yogurt dessert from its menu in 2014.
Sweetgreen went public on the New York Stock Exchange in 2021. The chain had $124 million in revenue last quarter, 29% more than a year ago. The company posted a quarterly loss of $47.4 million.
The company was founded by three Georgetown University students and its first store opened on M Street in Georgetown in 2007. The company is now headquartered in Los Angeles.