GREENS

Hot topic at our editorial meeting: How hot “green” is — not the color, the attitude. More and more people are realizing that we are ruining our beautful planet, choking her off with our insatiable fuel consumption and disposable society. How many of us get take-out daily (I am raising my hand up high!) and toss yet more foam plates, cups, and plastic forks into the landfills where they take 1,000 years to decompose?

Coincidentally, I had lunch at a new Preston Forest restaurant called Snappy Salads and learned it is one of Mayor Laura Miller — and her daughters’ — faves!

Snappy Salads, which opened on St. Patrick’s Day, is owned by local guy Chris Dahlander, former marketing director for Romano’s Macaroni Grill, a W.T. White grad who is uber eco-minded. Not only does his fast-food salad bar offer a plethora of fresh, crisp, well-iced salads, the entire store is green from the stained concrete floor to the recycled oak gathering tables. All employees wear hemp shirts and aprons, and all plasticware is 100 percent biodegradable because it’s made from corn.

“Watch your drinks,” he teases, ” because the cups melt in the Texas sun.”

Here’s the press release:
DALLAS, TX – If the only thing redeeming about your meal is that it is fast, a new restaurant in town is about to change that. Soon Dallasites will be able to eat a delicious and healthy meal…in a snap.

Snappy Salads is scheduled to open today at 11 am and promises not to be the typical salad place. The new fast-service restaurant will “dress up” salads (pun intended) to entrée status by using honest ingredients in a way that overwhelms every sense, using layers of flavors and textures while putting enough on the plate to satisfy a hearty appetite, but doing so in a healthy context.

“Snappy Salads is the freshest - and healthiest, if you choose - dining option that serves the highest quality, made-to-order salads faster than it takes to get your morning cappuccino, and at a price that will keep you coming back again and again,” said President Chris Dahlander, formerly Director of Marketing of Romano’s Macaroni Grill restaurants. Dahlander has been in the restaurant business for 13 years and says this kind of restaurant is long overdue. “With obesity at an all-time high and demanding work schedules that leave little time for decent meals, more people are looking for good food fast.”

“It is no surprise that time and convenience rank high in making meal choices away from home,” said Lona Sandon, an assistant professor of clinical nutrition at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas. “People are more pressed for time, and health is on people’s minds. Restaurant concepts such as this one are a step in the right direction to moving Americans toward making healthier choices. Just one large salad topped with veggies a day can meet at least half the recommended servings of vegetables.”

At Snappy Salads, guests create their own salad for $6.49 by choosing from four types of crisp, fresh lettuce, over 16 quality additions like organic tomatoes, roasted corn, imported Kalamata olives, frizzled leeks, candied walnuts, crumbled Maytag blue cheese, and nine homemade dressings. For a small charge ($1.99-$2.49), guests can add grilled chicken, Snappy chicken, pulled pork, sliced fajita meat, boiled shrimp, poached salmon, or grilled Portobello mushrooms. All the ingredients are perfectly mixed together using a spinning technique.

For those not in the mood for a crisp lettuce salad, several “Not Your Garden Variety” Salads (a.k.a. “NoYos”) will be offered daily for guests to mix-and-match as they please. Changing daily, these salads are made before guests arrive with ingredients that reflect the season, and are in a word - scrumptious. Think of these as picnic salads meet culinary school: Fresh Butternut Squash Salad, Smoky Brussels Sprouts and Bacon Salad, Roasted Grape Relish in Cheddar Crisp Cups, Fruit Fruit Cous Cous, and Melon & Prosciutto Salad with Pink-Peppercorn Vinaigrette.

Snappy Salads will also offer soups made from scratch daily for $2.99: Lentil and Garlic-sausage Soup, Chunky White Bean Soup with Pan-Fried Salami, Coconut Curry Noodle Soup, Barley Chupe with Queso Fresco, Yellow Split Pea Soup with Crispy Garlic, Bayou Beans-N-Rice with Andouille, and Polenta Soup with Spinach.

“When it comes to getting a quick meal that doesn’t have guilt written all over it, there aren’t many choices. Snappy Salads is a place where you can park, personally pick the contents of your salad to match your diet needs, have it perfectly mixed together, and walk out with a delicious salad in three minutes. Of course, that’s assuming you don’t want to get away from the grind of the office for at least a minute and gather around the table with your neighbors,” said Dahlander.

The 2,000 square foot restaurant features three long, wood “gathering” tables, each seating about 20, made from reclaimed lumber surrounded by deceptively comfortable stools. The floor has been stained to resemble a field after harvest and large blackboards that describe the daily features greet guests as they walk in.

Snappy Salads will be open 11:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. Monday through Saturday and until 4:00 p.m. on Sunday.

Snappy Salads will offer call-ahead and online ordering with specially marked parking spaces for carry-out customers. Home delivery will be offered after the first of the year, making it that much easier to get a fresh, crisp salad into your diet.

Snappy Salads is located in the Village Square at Preston Forest shopping center at the northwest quadrant of Forest Lane and Preston Road in Dallas. You may learn more about Snappy Salads by visiting www.snappysalads.com or calling 972-991-7627 (972-991-SNAP).

About Chris Dahlander, President
Chris has been in the restaurant business since he was 16 and is the visionary behind Snappy Salads. Chris was Director of Marketing with Romano’s Macaroni Grill restaurants, a division of Brinker International (a Fortune 500 company), for eight years and oversaw all aspects of marketing for 216 restaurants in the US, Canada, Mexico, Puerto Rico, and the UK with annual sales in excess of $700M. Before Brinker, Chris played a key role in building The Forbes Group (now Euro RSCG), a print marketing company that boasts such clients as Pizza Hut, Hardee’s, and IHOP. Chris is a graduate of Texas Tech University with a BA in Advertising/Marketing.

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