Steele Smiley plans to sell franchises in his Crisp & Green, a year after opening the "highly successful" salad shops in Wayzata and the North Loop.
"Crisp & Green will be the right franchise opportunity at the right time," Smiley said in a prepared statement. "Our wide variety of chef-driven, scratch-made recipes using only fresh, whole ingredients are exactly what [consumers] are looking for."
Smiley, the former owner of Steele Fitness, was the creator of the fresh-food concept and took over as majority owner and operator in the summer of 2017. Restaurateur Ryan Burnet remains a partner in the concept. The company declined to quantify its investment or whether it has positive cash flow.
Smiley, 39, a former Wall Street investment banker and swimmer at the University of Virginia, started Steele Fitness 12 years ago. It was acquired in 2013 by the larger Snap Fitness of Chanhassen for an undisclosed amount.
The salad craze has become something of a science in the battle for high-end healthy eaters.
Crisp & Green, for example, sampled eight versions of 'herbed falafel' to settle on the "perfect one … not only flavorful and nutritious, but unlike most falafel, it is baked rather than fried."
Last summer, Crisp launched a "dock delivery" service for those busy boaters on Lake Minnetonka.
