The new owners of the Salad Works at 37th and Spruce streets say that the eatery has improved since they took over, but some students say the management change is not necessarily for the better.
Over the summer, the ownership of that Salad Works changed, bringing three new owners to replace the previous sole owner, Ed Siegle.
Siegle said that he sold his Salad Works restaurant due to the overwhelming number of hours he had to work and due to personal reasons. He also said that business at the restaurant was fine before he sold, and that did not impact his decision to sell.
"It was a lot of hours, from early in the morning to late at night, and I wanted to do something else," he said.
"I wanted to get back into the produce business," Siegle added. "I'm working at the Philadelphia Regional Produce Center."
Glenn Trace, one of the new co-owners, said that with three owners helping to oversee Salad Works, things are running much more smoothly than before.
"We have three guys, and we can all cover it pretty good," he said.
Additionally, all three of the current owners own other Salad Works stores. Trace owns another Salad Works that caters to the "business crowd" in Center City.
"I've been involved in the Salad Works franchise for 10 years," he said.
According to Trace, the venue has been much improved since he and his two partners have taken over, especially since all of them have other experiences with their individually-owned Salad Works to draw on.
"We're trying to make it a better environment," he said.
Trace and his partners are attempting to "refresh the store" by painting it and adding televisions, though Trace said that getting access to cable for the restaurant has been problematic. He said they also aim to provide better service.
"The store was real dirty and wasn't being run well," he said. "We thought the service was pretty bad" before.
"I think we've changed that," he added.
While Siegle expressed confidence in the new owners, he did dispute the account of service under his watch, saying the new owners "can't make a statement like that."
Many students agreed that the restaurant is cleaner, but there were some complaints about the current operation.
"I actually don't like it there this year, because when I went there, they ran out of the sauce I wanted, and they didn't have the pasta I wanted," College junior Vivian Shin said. "Last year, they never ran out, and the people were so much nicer."
College sophomore Paul Perez had a similar experience at Salad Works.
"They ran out of the dressing that my girlfriend wanted," he said. However, he added that both service and food have been good at Salad Works.
College senior Diana Chan said that last year service tended to be slow because there were too many customers and not enough employees.
"When I went, [service] was pretty slow," Chan said. "That could just be because there were a lot of people."
"At the time, they were short on staff," she added.
Trace said that some menu items left over from the previous Salad Works owner were eliminated, like the meat sauce for pasta dishes. However, they plan to bring these items back, as well as add some new ideas to the mix.
Among these planned innovations are daily specials and frequent buyer cards.
"We're trying to get more college students in here," Trace said.
The trio of owners also lowered prices recently after initially raising them in hopes of attracting customers.
"The store is kind of slow, not that busy," Trace added. "We would love to have some other avenues to reach students."
