On the menu: one new salad restaurant and one new covered patio in downtown Evanston.
Farmhouse, 703 Church St., served the first of many meals under a covered patio late last week.
The roof covers a space facing the Evanston Public Library to the east, Orrington Avenue and Church Street to the south and Sherman Avenue to the west.
General Manager Phil Cocco said the official application for the permanent use of formerly public space was submitted last year and processed by the city without delay.
The new space features tabletop dining for some 40 people year-round. There are plans to attach walls around the three open sides come September or October and add portable heaters as the temperature drops. Diners enter the space by walking through the restaurant, entering near the Orrington Hotel entrance.
Sweetgreen cuts the ribbon
Sweetgreen, 1601 Sherman Ave., opened its doors earlier this week. The restaurant, focused on healthy, “reimagined fast food,” is in the newly renovated Fountain Square Building (formerly occupied by World of Beer.)
Mayor Daniel Biss was on hand for the ribbon cutting. With this new food destination comes 40 new jobs to Evanston, according to Jenn Huntross, who coordinates new restaurant openings for the Sweetgreen company.
The chain was started in 2007 in Washington, D.C. by three recent graduates of Georgetown University – Jonathan Neman, Nicholas Jammet and Nathaniel Ru.
The concept rests on the belief that good food should be accessible to everyone. Currently there are more than 150 Sweetgreen restaurants throughout the country with continued expansion planned. The plan is to be carbon neutral by 2027.
The restaurant specializes in salads and “warm bowls,” which are essentially salads with a cooked protein and sometimes rice or potatoes.
Each new restaurant makes a contribution to the local community. According to manager Bryan Tagala, all of the meals prepared by new staff were donated to Care For Real, a nonprofit that distributes food to food banks in Edgewater and Rogers Park. Additionally, each meal sold this week is “doubled” with the same meal donated to Care For Real.
The restaurant also promotes its business division, Outpost, where it will deliver Sweetgreen meals to companies on a regularly scheduled basis. Companies seeking to join Outpost need a minimum of 25 employees.