Fast-casual, healthy-eating restaurant plans summer opening

April 23, 2021

The rapidly expanding restaurant concept Crisp & Green is coming to Sioux Falls.

It represents a homecoming of sorts for founder and CEO Steele Smiley, who built a 20-year career in wellness in the Twin Cities.

Smiley, who moved frequently as a child, calls the three years he lived in Sioux Falls “my best experience as a child, and I told my team when we had success in Minneapolis that Sioux Falls would be our first market. It wasn’t quite our first, but it was in the top 20.”

While working in the wellness industry, Smiley built a network of boutique and full-service gyms while realizing “teaching people to make great food choices” was difficult without preparing most meals at home.

He opened Crisp & Green in late 2016 and added a second store five months later, and with “lines out the door every single day, I realized we had a business, and the concept began,” Smiley said.

The fast-casual format offers “whatever you want in the healthy world, whether it’s a salad, a grain bowl, a smoothie, treats or snacks, whether it has meat or not — you’ll find an option that’s healthy and customized the way you want it.”

The menu includes chef-suggested creations along with customizable dishes.

“I felt like it would be special, and it certainly turned out to be that way,” Smiley said. “We will build more stores in the next 18 months than any fast-casual in the U.S.”

Counting stores in development, that will bring the company to 64 stores in eight states.

The expansion in Sioux Falls was supported by the addition of franchisee Paul Goldammer, who also is the local franchisee for Potbelly Sandwich Shop and has locations in four other markets.

“For me personally to get involved and be this invested, it has to be something I really can stand behind,” he said. “I want that positive energy and love for the brand in our team and our shop, so I think that will shine through.”

The future location at the Western Mall is doors away from his Potbelly location.

“This shop will be like none other in Sioux Falls,” Goldammer said. “It’s going to be high design and a really clean and inviting place.”

There will be dine-in seating and outdoor seating accessed through an overhead door.

“There will be a lot of people who eat at this concept five or more times a week,” Goldammer said. “It is craveable food, and it’s healthy. It gives you energy. You get done with lunch or dinner, and you feel good to go.”

Crisp & Green typically does not struggle to hire, Smiley said.

Benefits include company-provided meditation, yoga and wellness support.

“We’re paying at the top of the range. It’s a great place,” Smiley said. “You don’t go home smelling that food. That doesn’t hurt.”

The plan is to open in June. Applicants can apply through crispandgreen.com.

“The Midwest always gets skipped by the great concepts, so the reality we can be an emerging national brand and make some of our first stores successful in the Midwest was very important to me,” Smiley said, adding he plans to personally cover meals for guests on the first day.

“I’m sure it’ll break the record,” he said. “It’s my gift back to the city. I’m going to make sure everyone knows they’re there.”

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Fast-casual, healthy-eating restaurant plans summer opening

The rapidly expanding restaurant concept Crisp & Green is coming to Sioux Falls.

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