Fresh Choice

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A Fresh Choice restaurant.

Fresh Choice is a chain of buffet-style restaurants located in California, Washington, and Texas under the names Fresh Choice, Fresh Plus, Fresh Choice Express, and Zoopa. The first restaurant was opened in Sunnyvale, California in 1986 and, as of 2006, the chain has twenty-nine (29) locations. Corporate headquarters are in Newark, California. There are also three (3) 'Express' locations.

Fresh Choice markets itself as a healthier alternative to fast food restaurants and its promotional material makes reference to menu options including low-calorie, low-carbohydrate, and low-fat diets. Fresh Choice's most prominent feature is a large salad bar with prepared salads, salad ingredients, dressings, and condiments. Other sections include self-service soup, a counter with breads, muffins, pizza, pasta with various sauces and a desserts such as fruit, puddings and soft-serve ice cream. Fountain beverages are self-serve and offer unlimited refills. Many locations also offer beer, wine, and bottled soft drinks.

The company is owned by Crescent Real Estate and Cedarlane Natural Foods post bankruptcy. The company most recently declared bankruptcy in 2004 after expansion into the Los Angeles market failed, and a new expensive state of the art restaurant put into the Westfield Valley Fair Mall failed to take off (averaging approximately 100 guests per day for the first several months it was open per the manager at the time). In all, it went from over 50 locations at the beginning of 2004 to the point it is at now, including closing several new locations in Texas, all but one of its locations in Washington, all its locations in Southern California, and several throughout the Bay Area and the Central Valley. Since that time the prices have continually elevated to the approximately $10.00 price point they are at now and many popular menu items have been removed including the classic garlic breadsticks, pastas (replaced by one meat sauce and one vegetable sauce with plain noodles), and others made seasonal only.

Fresh Choice's major competitor is Sweet Tomatoes (known as Souplantation in Southern California).