The Melt, a fast-casual eatery headquartered in San Francisco with 13 locations across California plans for seven new locations to open before the yearend, tapping Colorado as their first expansion market outside of California. The eatery will also open additional locations in Southern California this year. Focused on fulfilling The Melt’s mission of better food for our kids, jobs creation, and delivering happiness to each and every guest, the chain chose Colorado as their first expansion market based on accelerated restaurant growth and demand, especially in the fast-casual segment, in addition to identifying with the area’s strong community culture that promotes a healthy, active lifestyle. Using the highest caliber, best all-natural ingredients available, The Melt will serve up happiness at these new locations with comfort food favorites such as: premium burgers, grilled cheese, fries, mac ‘n’ cheese, and homemade soups.

The Melt’s first Colorado location will open August 14 at the Park Meadows Mall in Lone Tree. Along with the newly unveiled Park Meadows location, The Melt plans to quickly open four additional Front Range locations and three more stores in the chain’s home state of California in 2015.

“Expansion into Colorado is a first and exciting step in The Melt’s long-term plans for continued growth. We’re excited to become a part of the Colorado community and look forward to welcoming Colorado guests to our restaurants,” Kaplan says.

In addition to its menu of American classics, The Melt features the latest in online, mobile and in-store kiosk ordering, including a newly revamped geo-fencing app component, which ensures orders are hot, melty, and ready to go the second a guest walks in the door. The chain also recently rolled out an updated “Melt Perks Program,” which includes a digital Melt card that lives in the cloud and syncs all customer activity, acting as a rewards card, a mobile payment card, and a gift card all wrapped into one.

With a passion for philanthropy at the chain’s core, The Melt is proud to partner with Whole Kids Foundation as a ‘Round-Up’ partner. When guests at any Melt location ‘Round-Up’ their onsite or online orders to the nearest dollar, 100 percent of each donation goes toward funding local grants for edible teaching gardens and fun food education for kids at area schools.