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The salad days of summer

By Lisa Jennings
Nation’s Restaurant News

Whether or not global warming is to blame, this summer will likely be remembered for its record-breaking heat waves.

And when temperatures soar, taste buds turn to salads.

This summer’s weather has been a boon to salad-focused restaurants such as Tender Greens in Culver City, Calif., which opened in June. Developed by chef-partners David Dressler, Matt Lyman and Erik Oberholtzer, Tender Greens is a fast-casual concept offering a range of “simple” or “big” salads with sophisticated ingredients that would more typically be found in high-end dining rooms.

The idea, say the partners, is a restaurant offering upscale food in a relaxed setting — the sort of place where chefs might eat on their days off. Sandwiches, soups and a few hot items also are on the menu, but the emphasis is on the salads.

A simple salad at $5, for example, might include baby spinach with goat, hazelnuts and a Cabarnet vinaigrette, to which guests can add various proteins for a few dollars more.

Big salads, designed to serve as entrées at $9, include an ahi tuna nicoise with greens, potato, capers, egg, olives and Dijon vinaigrette, and a grilled flat iron steak salad with red and green butter lettuce, breakfast radishes, red and gold beets and horseradish vinaigrette.

The salads’ combinations are familiar, but the ingredients are top-quality, despite the low prices.

“We just use much better products than others do around town,” Oberholtzer says. “We’re not all things to all people.”

The greens are organic and locally grown, for example, including baby romaine, arugula, måche and spinach as well as various seasonal specials. Tender Greens works in partnership with local growers, which cuts supply costs and allow the daily delivery of freshly picked greens.

Boutique wines are poured by the glass or bottle and microbrew beers are available by the glass or pitcher. And the nearly 100-seat restaurant includes a shaded patio, offering an upscale-dining-in-the-backyard feel.

At Tender Greens, the nicoise is one of the top sellers, as is a chipotle barbecue chicken salad with romaine hearts, avocado, jack, crispy tortilla strips and a creamy lime dressing. Another popular choice is the cobb salad, which includes grilled chicken, romaine, blue, bacon, egg, avocado, tomato and a creamy dressing.

The three partners are planning a second Tender Greens unit in the Pacific Palisades neighborhood of Los Angeles, which is scheduled to open before the end of the year.