PHOTO COURTESY OF EVERYTABLE
EVERYTABLE RESETS ITS TABLE ONCE HAILED AS A CONCEPT THAT CRACKED THE CODE ON OFFERING HEALTHY FAST FOOD AT AFFORDABLE PRICES, THE LOS ANGELES-BASED CHAIN HAS RETRENCHED. WHAT HAPPENED?
BY LISA JENNINGS
I t has been a tough lesson in the restaurant industry’s “game of inches” for Everytable. Founded in 2016, the Los Angeles-based concept was once hailed as having cracked the code on the fundamental challenge of making healthful, nutritious fast food affordable to the masses, especially in “food desert” communi- ties, where too often options are limited to high-calorie and sodium-packed traditional quick-service chains. Everytable was designed to revolutionize the fast-food landscape. And for a while, it was riding high. The company had raised nearly $100 million from investors, and by this year had expected to be in multiple mar- kets across the country. In November, Everytable had about 60 outlets in California and New York. But then, the capital markets turned. Everytable retrenched, closing all units in New York and many in California. Now with 38 units, all in Southern California, the picture for the mission-driven concept looks very different. But Sam Polk, the former hedge fund trader who founded the concept and is its CEO, contends the reset that was needed has made Everytable even stronger. The focus now is on what is arguably one of the most interesting aspects of Everytable: A Social Equity Franchise program designed to open doors to ownership for those traditionally shut out of franchising, particularly those from the “food desert” communities the concept seeks to serve. And those franchisees say they are all in. “Right now, I’m walking into a store that’s making money,” said Alex Aguilar, franchise operator of a unit in Long Beach, California. “So, what’s been on my mind now is how do I get to the next one?”
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OCTOBER 2024 RESTAURANT BUSINESS
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