Salad and Go Cut Its Store Count in Half. The Turnaround Playbook Is a Lesson for Every Fast-Growing Chain.

In April 2025, Mike Tattersfield walked into one of the most uncomfortable situations in the restaurant business: a CEO chair that had been kept warm by rapid expansion and little else.

By the end of his first year running Salad and Go, the drive-thru salad chain had lost nearly half its stores. The brand exited Texas and Oklahoma entirely, cut approximately 600 jobs, relocated its headquarters from Dallas to Phoenix, and shrank from 146 locations to roughly 71 across Arizona and Nevada.

"I knew when I was able to get a look at the business model that it would shock me, good or bad," Tattersfield told Nation's Restaurant News in a March 2026 interview. "As I took on the role, I realized the company was growing just for growth's sake."

That quote should hang on the wall of every franchise development office in the country.

From 44 Stores to 146 in Three Years

Salad and Go was founded in 2013 in Gilbert, Arizona, by Tony and Roushan Christofellis, with the help of executive chef Daniel Patino. The concept was simple and differentiated: made-to-order 48-ounce salads for under $8, served through a drive-thru window at locations as small as 750 square feet. A centralized kitchen model handled prep and distribution, keeping individual store footprints tiny and build-out costs low.

At the end of 2021, the chain operated 44 locations, all in Arizona. Then the accelerator hit.

Under former CEO Charlie Morrison, who joined in March 2022 after leading Wingstop through its own high-growth era, Salad and Go expanded into Texas, Oklahoma, and Nevada. The pace was relentless: roughly one new store per week through much of 2023. By early 2024, the store count passed 130. At the end of 2024, Technomic pegged the footprint at 146 locations generating $1.74 million in average unit volumes, a 7.4% year-over-year increase in units.

The company opened a central kitchen facility in Garland, Texas, designed to support up to 500 locations within a 12-hour drive radius. That facility was a bet on a future that never arrived.

The Unraveling

Tattersfield, the former CEO of Krispy Kreme, took over in April 2025. What he found was a company that had prioritized unit growth over operational readiness.

"That was the first bell for me," Tattersfield said. "You have to be disciplined in how you grow interesting brands like this one. If you skip parts and focus on tripling in size in four years and add in the complexity of the central kitchen model, it comes with a lot of challenges."

The math was not working. Salad and Go's centralized prep model requires tight logistics coordination between its production facilities and individual drive-thru locations. Scaling that system across multiple states introduced supply chain complexity that the organization was not staffed or structured to manage.

In September 2025, the company closed 41 locations across Texas and Oklahoma. Houston lost 13. San Antonio lost all of its stores. The Dallas-Fort Worth market saw 18 closures, though 25 stores initially remained open.

Less than five months later, in January 2026, Tattersfield made the harder call: closing the remaining 32 locations in both states. Twenty-five in Texas, seven in Oklahoma. All doors shut by January 11. Six hundred employees lost their jobs. The Dallas headquarters closed.

The Garland kitchen facility, built to feed a 500-store empire, sits in a state the company no longer operates in.

The Founder Fallout

The closures prompted public commentary from an unusual source: the chain's own founders.

Tony and Roushan Christofellis, who exited the company before the Morrison-era expansion, published a Facebook post in January 2026 detailing what they described as the red flags they had seen developing. The founders said they watched the company raise prices, reduce quality, and overextend into markets where the unit economics did not support the model.

The Christofellises have since launched Angie's, a competing Arizona-based drive-thru concept that includes Angie's Lobster, Angie's Prime Grill, Angie's Burger, and Angie's Chicken. Tony Christofellis told Restaurant Business Online that Salad and Go's Arizona locations generate approximately $1.7 million in average unit volume, while his Angie's concept averages about $2 million per unit.

The founder departure, followed by public criticism of the company's direction, adds a layer of reputational complexity that few turnaround stories carry.

The Rebuild: Menu Innovation and Right-Sizing

Tattersfield is now betting that the brand's core model still works where it originated.

In the NRN interview, he outlined a "pipeline of innovation" focused on broadening the menu beyond salads. New additions include wraps, snackable quesadillas, the "Big Az Burritos" (a double-egg, shredded-beef, pepper-Jack offering named for Arizona), and new beverages like Citrus Zen, Toasted Marshmallow Cold Brew, and a Reviver Juice lineup. The chain has also shifted to sous vide-cooked chicken, responding to consumer demand for higher-quality protein.

The menu expansion addresses one of the concept's structural limitations: a salad-only chain fights seasonality and occasion constraints that a broader menu can smooth out.

Tattersfield has framed the contraction as a prerequisite for eventual re-expansion. "It's an incredible brand and we need to make sure the team is right sized and the pipeline of innovation is there before we can bring it back to its strength," he told NRN. He has also said Texas and Oklahoma "are important markets to us, and we intend to return when the time is right."

What Operators Should Take from This

The Salad and Go story is not unique in its mechanics. The QSR and fast-casual segments are filled with brands that grew faster than their operations could support. What makes this case instructive is the speed and severity of the correction.

The centralized kitchen model amplifies both the upside and the risk. When it works, centralized prep allows a brand to operate in tiny footprints with minimal on-site equipment, no fryers, no freezers, no boilers. When it breaks down across multiple states and time zones, the complexity cascades fast. Supply chain, logistics, food safety, and labor all become harder to manage from a single hub.

CBS News Texas reported in 2025 that multiple managers raised concerns about undercooked chicken being served at locations. Salad and Go denied any customers became ill but acknowledged a vendor change was required. For a brand built on a health-forward value proposition, food safety lapses are existential, not incidental.

Rapid unit growth masks weak unit economics. At $1.74 million in AUVs (Technomic, end of 2024), the system-wide average looked respectable. But averages obscure the distribution. Stores in Arizona, the brand's home market with the strongest awareness and logistics infrastructure, were likely performing well above that figure. New-market stores in Houston, San Antonio, and Oklahoma City were likely dragging the average down and burning cash.

Growth capital is not the same as operational readiness. Salad and Go built a central kitchen in Texas capable of serving 500 locations. The ambition was clear. But having the production capacity does not mean you have the management bench, the local brand awareness, or the supply chain discipline to fill it.

For operators evaluating growth timelines, the lesson is this: the infrastructure investment should follow the demand signal, not lead it by 400 stores.

Where It Goes from Here

With 71 locations concentrated in Arizona and Nevada, Salad and Go is now a regional brand with a national-caliber story. Tattersfield has the operational credibility (Krispy Kreme's public-market turnaround is on his resume) to execute a disciplined rebuild. The question is whether the brand's investor base has the patience for it.

The drive-thru salad category still has structural tailwinds. Health-conscious consumer demand is rising. GLP-1 medications are increasing interest in lower-calorie, protein-forward meal options. And the 750-square-foot, drive-thru-only format remains one of the most capital-efficient real estate models in the industry.

But the trust deficit is real. Franchisees, employees, and customers in two states watched Salad and Go arrive, expand aggressively, and leave. Returning to those markets will require more than a press release. It will require proof that the model works at scale, starting from the 71 stores that remain.

The story of Salad and Go in 2025 and 2026 is not a failure story. It is a correction story. And in an industry where growth metrics drive valuations and investor excitement, corrections like this one are the price of skipping the operational discipline that makes growth sustainable.

Sources: Nation's Restaurant News (Alicia Kelso, March 24, 2026), QSR Magazine (January 2026), Fast Company (Natasha Etzel, January 8, 2026), Restaurant Business Online (founders interview, January 2026), CBS News Texas (food safety report, 2025), Technomic Top 500 data (2024), Journal Record (January 9, 2026).