Souplantation and Sweet Tomatoes

The first Souplantation restaurant opened on Mission Gorge Road in San Diego in 1978. It was the idea of Dennis Jay, who was a bartender at Springfield Wagon Works, a pioneer in salad bars in El Cajon. Dennis's friends, John Turnbull and Scott King, were opening their first Soup and Salad restaurant, The Soup Exchange. Dennis was impressed with the new concept and introduced Steve Hohe, the Springfield Restaurant manager, and Ron Demery, a bail bondsman and friend of John and Scott. Dennis, Steve, and Ron decided to partner to create a parallel concept, the Souplantation. The two concepts grew side by side in a friendly, mutually supportive, yet competitive environment for several years. This restaurant and a second one in Point Loma were purchased in 1983 by Garden Fresh Restaurant Corp, founded by Michael Mack to operate the chain. In 2007, a Souplantation restaurant in Orange County, California, was linked to an outbreak of E. coli. The restaurant closed temporarily while authorities investigated the outbreak. In October 2016, Garden Fresh Restaurant Corp, the owner/operator of Souplantation and Sweet Tomatoes, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. At the time Garden Fresh was nearly $175 million in debt. In January 2017, the company said it expected to emerge from bankruptcy later that month, following a sale of the company's assets to New York–based private investment firm Cerberus Capital Management L.P. and its partners. Garden Fresh anticipated it would wind up with "between 90 and 104 restaurants" and "significantly less debt". In 2017, Garden Fresh and its restaurant chains were purchased by the New York City–based private investment firm Cerberus Capital Management. In March 2020, all of the restaurants closed due to state and local government mandated shutdowns as a response to the COVID-19 pandemic. On May 7, 2020, the company announced it would be closing all Souplantation and Sweet Tomatoes locations permanently amid concerns that new federal guidelines recommending an end to self-serve stations would prevent local health departments from granting permits to restaurants with salad bars and buffets. Garden Fresh Restaurants, the parent company to both Souplantation and Sweet Tomatoes, filed for Chapter 7 liquidation with the United States bankruptcy courts the following week on May 14. At the time of the announcement, the company had 4,400 employees and 97 restaurants. and there were conflicting reports on whether the new restaurant would include recipes owned by the original company. Later reports indicated that the Souplantation in La Mesa would not be reopened and that the location would instead be occupied by a Golden Life ADHC daycare. In March 2023, ST Three LLC purchased the exclusive rights and intellectual property assets of Souplantation/Sweet Tomatoes. but ultimately reopened on April 1, 2024. On February 14, 2025, a second location was opened in a former Souplantation in Chino Hills, California. ==Format==

Souplantation and Sweet Tomatoes specializes in fresh salads and soups, and pasta, as well as bread, muffins, cornbread, and focaccia, baked on the premises. Most items are vegetarian. The salad bar offers a wide variety of vegetables, fruits, nuts, seeds, croutons, and other salad condiments, as well as a few prepared featured salads, which changed monthly. Other sections include up to eight soup selections, a small bakery offering muffins, cornbread, pizza focaccia, and baked potatoes, a pasta section with a few different plates of pasta and sauces, and a dessert section offering fruit, puddings, and soft-serve ice cream. Featured menu items were rotated monthly and were typically themed, such as Asian, Greek, Italian, and customer favorites. The company's home city of San Diego often served as a test market for new ideas and innovations, and was home to Souplantation's corporate offices. For example, some Souplantation and Sweet Tomatoes locations were open on Sunday mornings for breakfast. In 2011, the company launched its first quick-serve restaurant, called Souplantation Express, in Carlsbad, California. == In popular culture ==

• Souplantation was the basis for the "Soup R' Crackers" chain that was a running joke on Party Down; the show's writers had originally planned to use the actual name of Souplantation, but the chain refused to allow it, necessitating the last-minute change to "Soup R' Crackers". • The chain features prominently in the 1986 volleyball movie Spiker, with multiple scenes taking place at a Souplantation. == See also ==