Salad Chain 'Chopt' Eyes Newtown Location

NEWTOWN, PA — Fast casual chain Chopt Creative Salad Company is looking to open its first Pennsylvania location in Bucks County.

Joe Blackburn, an attorney with Wisler Pearlstine, appeared before the Newtown Township Planning Commission on Tuesday on behalf of the company to present site plans for the restaurant to occupy a 2,500 square foot space in the Village at Newtown Shopping Center, which is owned by Brixmor Development and located at 2910 S. Eagle Rd. The restaurant would include indoor and outdoor seating.

Chopt offers a variety of salads and bowls, marketing themselves as a "global street food eatery," Blackburn said. There are currently about 65 locations up and down the East Coast, the majority of which are in New York. This would be the first location in Pennsylvania.

Salad chains like Sweetgreen and Chopt "have transformed salad from a side dish to a $12 meal", Business Insider writes.

The planning commission voted 5-1 to recommend approval. Commission member Amber Ray voted against the recommendation, citing concerns about a lack of adequate parking spaces.

"Already, the parking there is awful," Ray said. "I've frequently turned around and went somewhere else because I couldn't find a place to park."

The project now awaits the approval of the Newtown Township Board of Supervisors. If approved, it would bring the percent of square footage allocated for restaurant use in the shopping center to about 31 percent, still well below the allowable percentage of such use, which is 45 percent.

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