Sweetgreen opens in Garden City and Woodbury
The first Long Island location of sweetgreen has opened in Garden City with the usual lineup of bowls and salads. Credit: Newsday/Corin Hirsch
Wielding sweet potatoes and roasted tofu with near abandon, the bowl-and-salad chain sweetgreen has, 15 years after its inception, finally landed on Long Island.
The chain opened its first location in Garden City in October, wedged between a barre studio and a nail salon amid the chockablock restaurants on Seventh Street. Hot on its heels, a second sweetgreen opens in Woodbury Tuesday.
The Garden City eatery exudes a cheerful efficiency and healthy minimalism, with ample green and white tile, industrial shelving, exposed ductwork and, in the back, a prep kitchen whose veggies and greens (and those chopping them) are visible through glass.
“The active community in Garden City made it a natural location for sweetgreen,” said company spokeswoman Grace DeMeritt, who added that the chain, which first opened in Washington, D.C. in 2007, is making a push into the suburbs. It's already a lunchtime staple in New York City, where you are rarely far from a location. (There are about 200 nationwide).
Those who showed up in Garden City seemed to need little guidance for their orders, whether warm grain bowls topped with hot honey chicken or kale Caesar salads, sweetgreens’ intensely layered bowls — usually composed quickly, with greens or grains as a base — pull from dozens of ingredients, from roasted chicken and avocado to cauliflower, black lentils, roasted sweet potatoes and Parmesan crisps. They also change seasonally. Most dishes fall between $10 and $14. (Kombucha, sparkling waters and cold brew are among the chain’s drinks).
In Garden City, a handful of bleached wood tables seats 26 diners, and like many of its restaurant neighbors, sweetgreen also had a few bistro tables out front.
The Woodbury location has 28 indoor seats, as well as a seasonal patio. For each meal sold on opening day in Woodbury — which will feature live music and giveaways — sweetgreen will donate a meal to Island Harvest, said Demeritt.y).
sweetgreen, 191 Seventh St., Suite B, Garden City; 516-980-2500; 7969 Jericho Tpke., Woodbury, 516-548-8892; sweetgreen.com
