Sweetgreen: 'Healthy Alternative to Fast Food,' Coming to Ardmore

College buddies Nathaniel Ru, Jonathan Newman and Nicolas Jammet had a problem.

While students at Georgetown University, the undergrads wanted to eat out, but were sick of the traditional, unhealthy options at most fast food restaurants. Their answer to the dilemma, opened two months after graduation, was Sweetgreen – a salad, wraps and frozen yogurt restaurant for people on the go.

Three years later, Sweetgreen is making plans to open its eighth store, at Ardmore's Suburban Square, the first Sweetgreen site outside of the Washington D.C. metropolitan area.

"We're really excited about the Ardmore location," Ru said in an interview with Patch. "It's a big step for us – our first new market. We wanted somewhere with a combination of residential and urban traffic, and we think Suburban Square is a great fit."

The owners say they plan on opening the Ardmore location in December before the start of the holidays.

At 25-years old, the entrepreneurs' vision for healthy food for the active lifestyle has been met with positive reviews in their initial market. Sweetgreen offers a variety of salads, wraps and frozen yogurt, moderately priced at $6-10 for most items.

Ru said one of the most popular items is the "Guacamole Greens" salad. "It's everything you would find in a guacamole dip, deconstructed into a salad," he said. Avocadoes, grape tomatoes, red onion, crushed tortilla chips and mesclun with roasted chicken topped with a lime cilantro jalapeno vinaigrette and a fresh lime squeeze – all for about half the calories of a Big Mac and large fries.

"We see Sweetgreen as a solution to a problem," Ru said. "It's more difficult to eat healthy than it should be."

Ru said that Sweetgreen restaurant layouts are designed for movement. "We take a less-is-more, streamlined approach," he said. The typical restaurant is about 1500-square feet, with menu boards to order from and the food showcased at the ordering counter.

Sweetgreen likes to utilize recycled materials to furnish the inside of their restaurants – the wood for the Ardmore location was reclaimed from a demolished barn in Pennsylvania – and several locations feature 1980s-era bowling alley seats for table chairs. The restaurant pipes in fresh new tunes to keep the vibe upbeat and trendy.

"A lot of people, when they talk about eating healthy, get pigeon-holed into a granola, hippy demographic," Ru said. "We want to make healthy eating cooler than it is perceived to be." The company promotes its own lifestyle brand called the Sweetlife, used to promote healthy living choices and host events.

Reclaimed wood and hip music aside, the young restaurateurs seem to have a grasp on the key to the business. "Either the food is good, or the people leave," Ru said. Sweetgreen is betting Ardmore goes for the former.