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7 Brew wins auction for 73 Salad and Go sites in $143 million deal. The brand emerged ahead of Dutch Bros in the bankruptcy auction for the drive-thru restaurant portfolio. Sep 1 2026 7 Brew has won the competition for a large portfolio of Salad and Go real estate, agreeing to pay roughly $143.2 million for 73 sites as the drive-thru salad chain moves through bankruptcy. Salad and Go conducted an auction Monday between 7 Brew and Dutch Bros. The company entered the proceedings with 7 Brew as the lead bidder, and Dutch Bros ultimately elected not to submit a topping bid, according to bankruptcy court documents. Salad and Go subsequently named 7 Brew the successful bidder and Dutch Bros the backup bidder. The 73-site portfolio includes 41 locations in Arizona, 20 in Texas, and six each in Nevada and Oklahoma, according to court documents. 7 Brew is one of the fastest-growing concepts in America. It now has over 800 locations in 38 states. The company opened a net of 562 shops across 2023, 2024, and 2025. It earned $1.2 billion in sales last year and posted a $2.6 million AUV. READ MORE: The outcome marks a significant turn from the transaction Salad and Go proposed when it filed for bankruptcy on August 4. Dutch Bros initially agreed to pay $105 million for 51 drive-thru restaurants in Arizona and Nevada, along with 14 leases in Texas and Oklahoma. But Salad and Go's bankruptcy process left the door open for a higher offer. 7 Brew subsequently emerged as a competing bidder, setting up a head-to-head auction between two of the fastest-growing drive-thru beverage concepts in the country. Dutch Bros is entitled to a $3.8 million termination fee, plus reasonable and documented expenses, if the 7 Brew transaction closes. The final portfolio could still change before closing. 7 Brew can drop certain leases if it can't operate its business at those locations. The sale comes after a dramatic retrenchment for Salad and Go. The brand, founded in Gilbert, Arizona, in 2013, had expanded to 146 restaurants at its peak before beginning a widespread closure program. Roughly 70 restaurants were slated for closure as the company pulled out of Texas and Oklahoma and concentrated its remaining operations in Arizona and Nevada. The restructuring also included the closure of its Garland, Texas, commissary. The contraction followed an aggressive period of development that left Salad and Go facing financial pressure. The company raised approximately $27 million in additional capital between December 2025 and January 2026 before ultimately filing for bankruptcy. 7 Brew's winning bid gives the beverage chain access to dozens of existing drive-thru sites at a time when competition for suitable real estate has intensified across the industry. The transaction isn't final. A court hearing is scheduled for September 21 to consider the transfer of the leases and contracts to 7 Brew. Landlords and other parties have until September 17 to object.

Two of the fastest-growing drive-thru coffee operators in the US are battling for control of up to 130 Salad and Go stores after the QSR chain filed for bankruptcy in August 2026

Cyclospora just one factor in Salad & Go demise. Marcy Kreiter | August 28, 2026 FI Fast Facts: * Insiders say Salad & Go's financial troubles predated the Cyclospora outbreak. * Rapid expansion, rising costs and weak demand hurt the chain's performance. * Dutch Bros and 7 Brew have pursued former Salad & Go sites. The Cyclospora outbreak may not have caused Salad & Go's bankruptcy, but, coupled with ever-shifting consumer attitudes and the economy in general, it may have convinced the fast-casual restaurant chain there was no point in hanging on, experts told The Food Institute. Salad & Go filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on Aug. 4 and announced it would close all 70 remaining locations. A day later, Dutch Bros announced it planned to acquire 65 of the sites in Arizona, Nevada, Oklahoma and Texas to "expand our leadership position." Bidding for former Salad & Go sites has continued in recent days, including among coffee-centric chains like Dutch Bros and 7 Brew. Is cyclosporiasis still happening? The U.S. Food and Drug Administration announced the Cyclospora outbreak across five states July 16, later expanding it to cover 15 states and tying it to iceberg lettuce linked to Taylor Farms. As of Aug. 20, the FDA and CDC were still investigating the multistate outbreak. Alfred Golberg, chief brand strategist at Absolute Marketing Solutions, said though the outbreak may have played a role, Salad & Go showed signs of strain much earlier. "They closed 40 locations in 2025 as a strategic pullback indicating financial and performance concerns long before the outbreak," Goldberg said. "Then, in January of this year, they closed 32 more units, completely exiting Texas and Oklahoma - two big markets. "Most likely rapid expansion and the challenges facing many restaurant chains right now, such as consumer demand and rising costs, led to financial difficulties," Goldberg said. The outbreak, Goldberg added, "may have been the straw that broke the camel's back." And the drive-thru salad chain was not the only salad-centric operation to show the strain. Data from Plaicer.ai shows foot-traffic at Chopt fell markedly in the last week of July, down nearly 14% on the 28th alone. Fast-casual traffic overall was down 3.1% to 11.5% shortly after the Cyclospora outbreak was announced. As part of the bankruptcy filing Salad & Go CFO Francis Gallagher said such precipitous drops are "devastating." Bankruptcy highlights restaurant cost crisis. Attorney Daniel Gielchinsky said declining customer demand and too-rapid expansion likely doomed the chain, along with "strategic and operational missteps, leadership turnover, rising operating costs that are being experienced industrywide, and finally, a loss of consumer confidence after the outbreak." Salad & Go was founded in 2013 and headquartered in Phoenix. The company was sold to the private equity firm Volt Investment Holdings by founders Tony and Roushan Christofellis in 2021. The bankruptcy case was filed in Houston. "This is a painful day for everyone who built, worked for and loved Salad & Go," CEO Mike Tattersfield said in a statement quoted by KTAR, Phoenix. Restaurant Dive reported that in its heyday, Salad & Go had a vertically integrated supply chain, its ingredients readied in a central kitchen. At its peak, it was worth $1 billion and had 146 locations. An effort that began in February to sell the company failed. As part of the bankruptcy filing Gallagher blamed rising gasoline prices, in part, for accelerating cash losses in the last three months. The Food Institute podcast. In the foodservice industry, pricing variance does not announce itself. It accumulates line by line, across distributors, across weeks - and by the time a reconciliation team finds it, the recovery window has often closed. iTradeNetwork's Jeff Ramsaur shows how pricing overcharges happen in multi-distributor foodservice environments and what it costs when detection happens after the invoice is settled.