Saucy New Salad Restaurant Sweeps Into the Loop

A new salad restaurant has opened in Chicago from the Motor City. 7greens debuted today in the Loop, west of the Washington/Wells CTA train stop at 218 W. Washington Street. The chain originated in the Detroit area in 2014 and the Chicago location is founder Kelly Schaefer’s third restaurant. She has dreams of opening more in the Chicago area.

Schaefer is a graduate of the French Culinary Institute and uses her education in creating cheffy dressings for her restaurants. She doesn’t like to call them dressings, preferring to label them as sauces. They come in varieties including miso, chipotle ranch, and pomegranate sumac. The restaurant also serves warm bowls, toasts, smoothies, and wraps. The menu also includes breakfast sandwiches in flavors like the “Blake Burrito” with spinach, scrambled eggs, chorizo, roasted sweet potato, avocado, green onion, salsa fresca, and a jalapeño-cilantro-lime sauce.

7greens [Official Photo]

It’s a tiny space at 900 square feet, but Schaefer hopes Chicagoans will take to her approach to salads. For Loop lunchers wanting to add more veggies to their diet, 7greens gives them an option along with the usual suspects like Sweetgreen.

7greens, 218 W. Washington Street, open 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. on Monday to Thursday; 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Friday.