(Photos: Daniel Maurer)
Nearly a year ago, we got word that Sweetgreen, the crunchy fast-casual chain, was plunking down in Williamsburg, in a building near the forthcoming Whole Foods that will also be home to outposts of Parm and Umami Burger.
That location opened this week. As you can see from our photos, it shares a minimalist aesthetic with its soon-to-be neighbor, the Apple Store.
If you haven’t been to Sweetgreen’s NoMad store or the Nolita location that opened at 100 Kenmare Street this month, the place prides itself on having a seasonal menu that changes five times a year and employs locally sourced and organic ingredients. And if you don’t believe the house newsletter’s boast that the “delicious and transparent food” comes from “farmers we know and partners we trust,” a chalkboard name-checks farms in the Northeast and mid-Atlantic (and, okay, some purveyors in California).
The Williamsburg outpost — which soft-opened Monday with a pay-what-you-wish fundraiser that raked in nearly $4,000 for Education Through Music — is one of the first to feature an open kitchen and the very first to feature “infusions” like pear agua fresca and “detoxifying” chai iced tea, plus homemade ginger beer and sarsparilla. And, of course, fresh juices.
The 55-seat dining room is decorated with art by downtown artist Gordon Stevenson, aka Baron Von Fancy, who also did the exterior neon. There’s also a photo of Sweetgreen friends and family enjoying an al fresco dinner at Brooklyn Grange, the rooftop farm provided ingredients for the chain’s gazpacho during the summer. When the weather warms, the front windows will open up and there’ll be sidewalk seating as well.
Sweetgreen, 162 N. 4th St., nr. Bedford Ave.; 347-987-3863; open Monday through Sunday, 10:30am to 10pm