Houston, Texas–based Salata—a salad bar chain specializing in fresh, tossed-to-order salads and salad wraps—announces a new franchisee with plans to open up two new markets for the growing chain in San Antonio and Austin, Texas.
Under a franchise agreement, San Antonio restaurateurs Pat Hanlon and Tom McCarthy will open five Salata restaurants in San Antonio and seven in Austin. Their first Salata opens in September in San Antonio’s popular Huebner Oaks Shopping Center.
Hanlon and McCarthy have owned and operated San Antonio’s Alamo Café, a favorite Tex-Mex destination with both locals and tourists, since 1981.
After more than 30 years in business together, Hanlon and McCarthy had been searching for a unique franchise opportunity when Hanlon came across Salata on a visit to Dallas.
“We’ve been looking to expand our company into other sectors of the restaurant industry for a few years and couldn’t find anything we were passionate about until Salata,” Hanlon says. “When my daughters took me to Salata in Dallas’ Preston Center, we saw everything we cared about in action: impeccable presentation and cleanliness, the highest-quality ingredients, and an operator that clearly had pride in what the company was doing.”
Salata was founded in 2005 by restaurateur Berge Simonian and business partner Tony Kyoumjian. Salads and salad wraps are made and tossed for the customer, not by the customer, and rather than pricing by weight, Salata offers any number of toppings for one set price.
Customers can choose from Salata’s wide selection of more than 50 fresh ingredients, including lettuces, vegetables, beans, fruits, cheeses, seeds, nuts, house-made dressings, and proteins.
Committed to high-quality, always-fresh ingredients, Salata’s dressings are made in-house and are gluten free. Soups and marinades are also handcrafted and gluten free.
Hanlon and McCarthy have exclusive rights to open Salata restaurants in the San Antonio and Austin areas, and have three restaurants in various stages of development.
In addition to the Huebner Oaks location, they will open their second location in the Stone Oak/Sonterra area by the end of 2013. Their first Austin location will open in early 2014.
Kasey Hanlon, graduate of Oklahoma State University’s School of Hotel and Restaurant Administration, will act as their vice president of operations for both the Austin and San Antonio markets.
“Salata’s success in Houston and Dallas comes as a result of its offering; people want more fresh and healthy dining options in Texas,” McCarthy says. “We are eager to bring Salata’s great salads and wraps to San Antonio and Austin.”
Salata has 22 locations in Houston, Dallas, and Los Angeles. In May, it announced franchise development agreements that would bring 20 new units to southern California and anticipates growth in additional new markets including Chicago and Atlanta.
