7 Brew buys former Salad and Go locations, including 36 in Arizona

Tucson residents who watched Salad and Go locations close abruptly could soon see a familiar drive through property take on a new identity. 7 Brew, a rapidly expanding coffee chain, has agreed to buy 63 former Salad and Go sites across the Southwest, including 36 in Arizona and six in Tucson. The purchase includes the former locations, but the available information does not say when any Tucson site might reopen as a 7 Brew or what changes customers should expect.

A Texas bankruptcy court approved the sale Sept. 29, which was also National Coffee Day. Brew Culture LLC, the parent company of 7 Brew, agreed to pay nearly $123.5 million for the properties. Another account described the transaction as a $123 million purchase. The sale is expected to be completed Oct. 15, assuming the remaining steps proceed as planned.

The deal follows Salad and Go’s Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing on Aug. 4. The Gilbert-based company then permanently closed its locations, with closures reported across Arizona and Nevada on Aug. 5 and Aug. 6. More than 50 restaurants were shut down during that period, leaving customers and workers with little time to prepare. In Tucson, the change was especially visible at drive through sites that had become part of daily routines for quick meals.

One of those former Salad and Go properties is at 960 East Tucson Marketplace Boulevard. Customers were already lining up around a 7 Brew drive through there on Oct. 1, shortly after the court approved the purchase. That activity shows 7 Brew already has a Tucson presence, although the sale itself does not establish whether every purchased property is operating, under construction, or still awaiting conversion. The six Tucson locations included in the transaction have not been individually identified in the available details.

Salad and Go was founded in Gilbert in 2013 and built its business around affordable, health focused food served through a drive through format. Over a 13 year span, the company served more than 60 million meals at 70 locations, according to reporting based on a law firm news release and earlier coverage. Company officials attributed the shutdown to prolonged pressure on customer demand, difficulties connected to its growth strategy, higher costs, and broader industry fallout from a Cyclospora outbreak in July.

The abandoned properties attracted competing interest after the closures. 7 Brew and Dutch Bros Coffee both pursued the locations, with 7 Brew ultimately offering more than $15 million above its competitor. The purchase gives 7 Brew a substantial group of ready made sites in several states, including Arizona, Oklahoma, Nevada, and Texas. It also places the coffee company in properties that were designed for fast vehicle service, a format shared by both 7 Brew and Salad and Go.

7 Brew began in Arkansas and was acquired by an entrepreneurial group in 2020. Since then, it has expanded quickly and now has more than 700 locations in 38 states. Its planned acquisition of the Salad and Go sites would add a major collection of properties to that broader expansion, but it does not cover the entire former Salad and Go network. About 50 locations were left out of the transaction and are being pursued by other potential buyers.

Eight Arizona locations remain available and are scheduled to be offered at a future auction. Their specific addresses, like the addresses of most of the 36 Arizona properties being purchased by 7 Brew, have not been released in the available information. Utah based soda chain Swig is seeking to buy those eight remaining Arizona sites for $5.4 million, according to bankruptcy court documents obtained by KTAR News. The outcome of that proposed purchase and the future use of the remaining properties will depend on the auction and court process.

For Tucson, the immediate result is a reshuffling of the city’s drive through restaurant landscape. A locally founded salad chain has exited after a sudden bankruptcy, while an out of state coffee company is acquiring some of the same real estate and expanding an operation that is already drawing long lines. The court approved the transaction, but the sources provide no detailed schedule for renovations, employee hiring, menu changes, or reopening plans at the six Tucson properties. Those details will determine how quickly the change becomes visible beyond the ownership records.