First, I have to admit to you… I’m not really a salad lover. I rarely ever order them. I usually get tempted away by savory starters like soup, or something covered in cheese. If I get a salad, it always has cheese on it for a savory rich component, as well as some sort of nuts or seeds for texture, and hopefully either in the dressing or in additives a balance of acid but not too much.
I’m very aware of whether there is too little or too much dressing and how well it is distributed (I toss it with my own hands at home- though more often I end up using the greens in a main or side dish that is cooked or thrown in and wilted which tricks me to eating more of them). I also really pay attention to whether all the flavors and textures interplay well together or if I’m just eating a mixed bowl. There are very few salads that stand out in my food memories.
As an aside, just look at how my food photography has improved over time with these few salad photos that I have of amazing salads I still recall fondly…
But, I wasn’t always someone who didn’t crave a salad. When I lived in Chicago, I used to at least once a week go to this place called Salad Spinners. Unlike most salads that I have experienced, the salads on their menu just burst with flavor instead of just being the taste of greens and dressing. Besides the salads on their menu, when you walked in there was a little notepad with a pencil, and you could build whatever kind of salad you wanted by checking items off.
The line was always out the door for lunch, but it moved fast, and when I walked past it in the early morning before the markets open (at the time, I was working in the financial markets sector while going to school for my HCI degree in the evening- so probably almost 10 years ago), I would always see them busily prepping away all the new fresh ingredients. And there were so many ingredients- like two dozen little checkboxes. It took me quite a while to try everything, and I never could settle on a “regular order”, and I had to restrain myself from checking too many good things.
It looks like that idea might be coming to Portland… I can’t think of anything quite like the Salad Spinners concept in Portland, and even Salad Spinners has since closed/only does catering perhaps back in Chicago. A Kickstarter just started earlier this week for Farmers Revival and continues until August 19, and has the task of trying to raise $100,000 to start a Salad Bistro concept. This project by Dave Rose seems to be aiming for that same wonderful goal of promoting salads to the next level, as well as helping you explore lots of different salad combinations without you having to do the prep work of the cleaning and chopping and committing you to a large amount of ingredients in exploring what your perfect salad flavor combination is.
Besides the 8 signature salads or build your own salad, Farmers Revival Salad Bistro also will feature homemade soups, artisan breads, pastas, fresh pressed juices, local wines and beer, and frozen yogurt to wrap up as dessert, using locally sourced organic ingredients from Pacific Northwest farms. Sounds like a menu with lots of options for healthy choices, as well as supporting local. Dave grew up in a small rural town, and it seems he wants to give back and support the farm community, as well as celebrate the the produce, given the name of the place!
I also find it fascinating that Dave seems to have come from a career path in Information Technology in the healthcare industry, but he can’t shake his memories from his parents’ 20 year experience in the restaurant industry, and apparently wanting to emerge from behind the shiny computer screen and into the messy world of food, service, and lots of people!
I appreciate that he is coming at this with a very analytic, business focused perspective. For instance, his Kickstarter website reports that he followed “Lean Startup” methodology and conducted a series of focus groups that included ~ 40 taste testers who took part in hypothesis-driven experimentation, iterative product releases, and “validated learning.” So as someone with an HCI Masters and promoter of User Center Design and whose career is focused on user experience, I am already feeling very confident in Farmers Revival because of their research, especially with the result that “when asked to rate our salads on a scale of 1 through 4 (1 = Terrible, 2 = Average, 3 = Good, 4 = Excellent) 99% of the focus group scored them as a 4. The remaining 1% scored them as 3”
So clearly, they have some VERY TASTY salads. One of their promotional images includes this Indian inspired salad below with Indian salad with curried-quinoa, roasted cauliflower and a spicy curry vinaigrette. Apparently they try to do very innovative salads that are also inspired from around the world, such as Caribbean, Spanish, Italian, etc.
I also totally appreciate the little spreadsheet that helps explain how he came up with the $ amount for what he is trying to raise- again, it seems to be a proof of how carefully he has through this through. I appreciate those who know how to use spreadsheets. I’ll try to stop there with the spreadsheet love. The Kickstarter page is full of more proof about his passion about also pragmatic understanding that it’s also a business, the latter of which I often see a bit wanting in Kickstarters.
I wish Dave and his family and those involved with Farmers Revival the best of luck in their pursuit. I was not compensated in any way for this post, but I am enthused about this potential and really want them to become real so I can eat all their salads and restart my perfect salad experiments! I have embedded a video they have when they had various consultants try their salads and filmed it… hearing what they said really makes me wish I could taste one of those salads myself. Take a look at the Kickstarter for Farmers Revival Salad Bistro, and of course, come to your own decision. You can also check out the Farmers Revival Salad Bistro Facebook page.
Dinner With The Consultants from David Rose on Vimeo.
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