Salad & Go
Audio By Carbonatix
Dozens of cars spilled from the drive-thru line at the Salad and Go at PV in north Phoenix. The idling vehicles stretched along the road that circles the shopping center and into Paradise Village Parkway. The lunch rush at the fast salad-and-wrap drive-thru can be slammed, but not like this.
Salad and Go, the homegrown healthy drive-thru chain, announced Tuesday evening that it has filed for bankruptcy and will close all locations after serving guests today.
The company, which got its start in Gilbert in 2013, has 70 drive-thrus in Arizona and Nevada.
Diners who came for one last Cobb salad or elote wrap had no choice but to line up, wait and hope the restaurant didn’t run out of food before they made it to the ordering window. Online orders were shut off, and the walk-up windows were closed. Staff could be seen working quickly, handing out lemonades and bags brimming with salads packed in bright orange bowls.
Ashley Davies drove over to the PV Salad and Go to order a Summer Crunch salad.
“This is my favorite salad place, and I am devastated that it’s closing,” she says while sitting in her idling sedan. “Just like everyone else, I’m here to get one last salad. I didn’t realize it would be like this, but I have to do it. I have to get one last salad, so I’m waiting in line.”
The affordable, healthy, generously portioned meals made Davies a fan. After today, she’ll have to find a new spot for lunch. Routine visitors like her weren’t enough to keep the chain afloat.
Though Salad and Go has not been implicated in the cyclospora outbreak that spread across the U.S. this summer, the company cited it as a challenge the business faced, in addition to pressure on consumer demand, growth challenges and rising costs.
The drive-thru chain expanded rapidly over the years, including to Texas and Oklahoma. In September 2025, Salad and Go closed more than 40 restaurants. By January, the chain announced it would close the remaining stores in Oklahoma and Texas.
The final Salad and Go locations will close tonight after serving their last customers. Salad and Go filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in Texas. That process will allow “the company to realize the value of its assets and to meet its obligations in an orderly manner,” the announcement said.
Five companies tied to Salad and Go are included in the bankruptcy filing: And Go Concepts, AGC-Arizona Facilities, AGC-North Texas Facilities, Garland New Market and SAG Corporate Services. These companies could owe more than $2 billion in debts to several creditors. Initial petitions filed with the court only include a range of liabilities, not an exact dollar amount.
A suitor for the restaurant’s drive-thrus has already emerged. Boersma Bros., the Oregon-based company behind the coffee chain Dutch Bros, wants to buy Salad and Go’s assets, per bankruptcy court documents. Boersma Bros. would pay $105 million to take over 65 locations in Arizona, Nevada, Texas and Oklahoma.
Sara Crocker
Salad and Go Founders react
Tony and Roushan Christofellis, the founders of Salad and Go, called it a “bittersweet day” in a social media post. Volt Investments, a private equity firm, took a stake in the business and bought out the couple in 2021. That same year, the couple launched the first of its fresh, fast family of Angie’s restaurants, starting with Angie’s Lobster.
“Thirteen years ago, we started Salad and Go with a simple belief that great-tasting, good-for-you food should be affordable for everyone. We dreamed that anywhere there was a McDonald’s, there would also be a better and healthier alternative that people could afford,” the post said. “Although we exited in 2021, watching the company announce the closing of its remaining locations is heartbreaking. We’re grateful for every team member, customer, supplier and community that believed in our crazy mission.”
The couple left Salad and Go, Tony Christofellis explained to Phoenix New Times, because they were concerned about how aggressively investors wanted to grow the chain.
“I didn’t want this to happen,” he says, “and now it’s happened.”
Christofellis’ biggest concern is for the staff who will be out of a job. He was “shocked” to hear that workers will not receive severance pay. New Times has reached out to Salad and Go to confirm whether staff will receive any severance.
Although the news about Salad and Go was widely circulating online Tuesday night, the company had not posted any updates on its website or to followers on social media. Its social media pages have now been deleted.
Media and social media coverage drew fans like Maverick Bolen to wait in line. He’d grab a breakfast burrito bowl or cobb salad and frozen strawberry lemonade from Salad and Go twice a week. Now, he’s not sure what his new routine will be.
“I gotta find a new spot, I guess,” he says. “It’s going to be a struggle.”
The Angie’s team invited distraught Salad and Go fans to pull into their drive-thrus.
Christofellis notes they’ve rethought healthier versions of burgers, fried chicken and pizza, in addition to salads and bowls. Angie’s currently runs 26 restaurants in Arizona, Nevada and Texas. The group will open six more in Arizona before the end of the year. Christofellis hopes to hire some former Salad and Go staff and give fans a fresh dining option.
“This is the way fast food should and will be,” he says. “Arizona is in great hands with Angie’s.”
