sweetgreen

Ten Black employees, including men and women, have sued Sweetgreen and two “head coaches” for racial discrimination and sexual harassment experienced in several New York restaurants, according to a copy of the suit emailed to Restaurant Dive.

Sweetgreen highlights various diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives on its website, including anti-bias trainings and a commitment to “examining and updating our recruitment, hiring, and promotion practices to build more diverse representation in leadership and management.”

Sweetgreen, the publicly traded salad chain that has said it wants to be the McDonald’s of its generation, was accused Thursday of fostering a hostile workplace in several of its New York City stores, where Hispanic managers allegedly discriminated against, harassed and demeaned Black employees.

Managers and coworkers called Black workers racial slurs and female workers faced sexual harassment and inappropriate touching, a lawsuit claims.

Sweetgreen Inc. workers can pursue bias claims in state court after a judge blocked the salad chain from using a law banning forced arbitration of sexual harassment allegations to keep the case in a federal forum.

Jonathan Neman really seemed to think he was onto something. Last week, in a lengthy, now-deleted post on LinkedIn, the CEO and co-founder of the upscale salad chain Sweetgreen expounded on a topic that might seem a little far afield for a restaurant executive: how to end the pandemic. “No vaccine nor mask will save us,” he wrote. (The vaccines, it should be noted, have so far proved to be near-miraculously effective at saving those who get them.) Instead, he lamented that Americans are simply too fat to survive COVID-19, a reality that he says could be addressed with “health mandates.”

Sweetgreen’s rationale for the controversial caramelized, garlic-flavored steak menu addition this week includes using regenerative farming. The chain also says carbon offsets are part of its pledge to combat climate change and reduce its greenhouse gas emissions.

In May, Sweetgreen opened a long-awaited location in Naperville, Illinois, about 30 miles outside of Chicago. Like many of Sweetgreen’s 220 locations, it’s bright, with neon signage and smiling employees. Unlike any of them, however, it’s staffed by a salad-making robot, which Sweetgreen calls its Infinite Kitchen.

In early May, Sweetgreen opened its first automated location, in the Chicago suburb of Naperville, Illinois. After only a few weeks operating the restaurant, the salad chain is preparing to go all in on the technology to cut labor costs and improve the customer experience.

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Sweetgreen launched new items as part of Low Carbon Collection menu in April alongside its first impact report, which highlighted the company's 12% reduction in carbon emissions compared to 2019. Permission granted by Sweetgreen

In a recent announcement, Sweetgreen introduced its Head Coach Incentive Plan, which takes effect in the first quarter of fiscal 2027.

“We’ve seen the news, and we know you have questions. We’re on it,” Sweetgreen said in a post on X. “Sweetgreen has NOT been identified in connection with the current cyclospora outbreak, but our food safety experts continue to monitor the situation closely.”

The perennially unprofitable Sweetgreen cut 10% of open and existing roles within its support center teams recently, and will drop Ripple Fries from its menu, despite positive consumer feedback, CEO Jonathan Neman said on the chain’s Q2 earnings call.

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Sweetgreen has also unveiled a new marketing campaign in honor of LGBTQ + Pride month starting in June that underscores the purpose of inclusivity, according to Fast Casual. The restaurant is partnering with Covenant House to promote awareness for homeless LGBTQ+ youth, which accounts for 40% of all homeless youth across the country. Sweetgreen plans to donate $1 from each bowl purchased on June 2 up to $25,000 to support the program.