Sweetgreen Adds Fries to the Menu and Says They're 'Redefining Fast Food'
Sweetgreen is famous for serving up deliciously healthy salads and warm bowls with an emphasis on fresh, seasonal, plant-forward ingredients, and now lucky guests can order a side of fries with their salads. Starting Tuesday, March 4, Sweetgreen will have French fries on the menu, but of course these are not your average fries: Made from scratch with just five ingredients and tossed in avocado oil, the new Ripple fries are served with a choice of Pickle Ketchup and/or Garlic Aioli. The fries will be available in all 246 locations nationwide.
"At Sweetgreen, we're always thinking about our larger mission to redefine fast food, and Ripple Fries are the next step in that journey," Chad Brauze, Head Of Culinary at Sweetgreen, tells Eat This, Not That! "We're excited to give our guests the classic fry experience they know and love, but made the Sweetgreen way with clean, high-quality ingredients."
Making the fries in avocado oil is right in line with Sweetgreen's recent pivot away from using seed oils. "Last year, we began removing seed oils—introducing extra virgin olive oil and avocado oil for roasting our vegetables and proteins," CEO Jonathan Neman said on X. "This January, we're excited to take it a step further with the launch of our first-ever seed oil-free menu. Featuring delicious, protein-packed options crafted entirely without seed oils, this lineup offers more transparency and choices for our guests. Whether it's our approach to roasting or creating dressings from scratch, we're redefining fast food to prioritize real ingredients that fuel your body and inspire a healthier food system—one flavorful bite at a time."
The Los-Angeles based chain had a rough start to the year with bad weather across the country impacting sales in January and February, but the fries and a new loyalty program might help turn things around. The program is called SG Rewards, and will give customers 10 points for every dollar spent at Sweetgreen, according to Restaurant Business Magazine. The new loyalty program will replace the old Sweetpass program, which offered guests discounts and rewards.
"One of the things that we're very focused on is how do we have a more direct relationship with our customers," Neman said during a third-quarter call with analysts in November 2024. "Loyalty is going to be a big piece of this puzzle." He also talked about the upcoming French fry launch, saying, "We want to disrupt fast food. We want to give you those things that you want, that you're used to eating—things like fries—and do it in a Sweetgreen way, in a way that we kind of think about as a permissible indulgence."
Sweetgreen's move to add fries to the menu is right on brand with the popular "girl dinner" craze, where the focus is on smaller, tasty snacks with healthy/indulgent foods all appearing on a plate. The company teased the launch on Instagram, captioning a post "universally loved, uniquely sweetgreen. any guesses?" The comments were filled with people guessing French fries, sweet potato fries, and roasted potatoes, as well as fans begging for the return of old favorites. "Bring back the Chicken Tostada," one customer commented. "Please bring back the hummus tahina. I ask you this everyday," another said.
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