The team at sweetgreen is all about unique combinations that inspire. At our annual sweetlife festival, we bring together our love of music and our love of food. This year, we’re excited to welcome back one of our favorite artists, Kendrick Lamar, to headline the festival. Kendrick performed at sweetlife in 2013 and to celebrate his return to the stage, we’re offering a limited-edition ‘beets don’t kale my vibe’ salad.
We’ve been a big fan of this pun for a few years now, and we’re excited to turn it into a reality as part of our menu. The ‘beets don’t kale my vibe’ salad includes organic wild rice, shredded kale, roasted beets and red onions, local goat cheese, roasted chicken, honey-glazed pecans and our housemade balsamic vinaigrette. Since Kendrick is passionate about supporting local communities, we’ll donate 10% of the proceeds to FoodCorps, our sweetgreen in schools charity partner.
The salad is available now through the end of May at all of our locations, so stop by and give it a try. And don’t forget to get your tickets to see Kendrick perform at this year’s sweetlife festival.
This year’s sweetlife music festival is more exciting than ever! From the sweetgreen x Kendrick Lamar “Beets Don’t Kale My Vibe” salad, the addition of BANKS to our artist roster and a delectable food lineup featuring chefs like Nick Wiseman and Jose Andres, we’re gearing up for an incredible two days at Merriweather Post Pavilion. This year’s festival is bigger than ever, but we’ve also made it more green, with six sustainable partnerships to bring sweetlife even closer to a carbon-neutral event. Here at sweetgreen we’re all about leaving a gentle footprint.
1. We’re partnering with Capital Biodiesel, an alternative energy company that collects waste vegetable oil (WVO) throughout the DMV area and converts it into clean-burning biodiesel. America produces 12 billion pounds of waste cooking oil each year; imagine the possibilities of expanded use of WVO.
2. sweetlife will be powered by 100% clean energy thanks to local energy company Arcadia Power. The federal government set up a marketplace to buy, sell and trade renewable energy from its source. Through this marketplace, Arcadia is purchasing Renewable Energy Certificates (RECs) to match our festival’s energy use, which will bring our carbon impact to zero.
3. We’re happy to partner with Clean Vibes for the second year in a row to provide composting, recycling and waste collection at this year’s festival. Last year we collected 1,900 pounds of compost and 5,600 pounds of recycling, but we want to do more this year, so make sure you turn in your recyclables at our eco stores to win prizes.
4. Our experience forest will have six PureCity bikes, equipped with SivaCycle’s Atom that will charge your phone as you ride, so you can Instagram / Snapchat / tweet all day long.
5. This year’s sweetlife festival is aiming to be a zero-waste festival. That means everything you purchase from our vendors will either be recyclable or compostable.
6. We have a lot of incredible food vendors at sweetlife, and we’re expecting some big appetites. Because food is a terrible thing to waste, we are partnering with Community Food Rescue to collect and distribute any remaining food to those in need in the greater Maryland area.
Interested in attending? Tickets are still available! Check out www.sweetlifefestival.com for all the information you may need. Thanks for living the sweetlife with us!
Kick off the weekend with our #sweetlife2015 playlist and get excited for our first ever two-day festival on May 30 + 31st! This year, we’re bringing Calvin Harris, Kendrick Lamar, The Weeknd, Pixies, Charli XCX and 20 more acts to Merriweather Post Pavilion for a taste of the sweetlife.
The sixth annual sweetlife festival is here, and this year it’s bigger and better than ever! Check out the full two-day lineup above and read a note from the sweetgreen co-founders about the origins of the festival.
Music has always been an essential part of sweetgreen’s DNA. We believe it’s the universal language that brings great people together. It was our love of music that led us to throw our first sweetlife festival, a small gathering of friends and family in the parking lot behind the second sweetgreen location.
This year, we’re excited to announce a 2-day festival, featuring over 22 hours of music and more than 25 of our favorite artists. The sweetlife is about meaningful living and authentic relationships. It’s about recognizing the unexpected combinations that create memories.
sweetlife 2015 is not just seeing some of our favorite bands perform, or eating the best healthy, local food around – it’s the intersection of these two things coming together to create a memorable experience.
See you in May and welcome to the sweetlife!
Nathaniel, Nicolas + Jonathan sweetgreen co-founders
p.s. Want tickets to the festival? Be sure to follow sweetgreen on instagram by 8pm ET on Wednesday, March 4th for the exclusive presale code! Presale starts at 10am on March 5th.
Getting there. We’re working with some great transportation partners to take you to and from Merriweather on Saturday and Sunday. Whether you’re traveling solo or with a group, Uber and Rally Bus, will guarantee you a safe trip! Get more info here.
Eating. This is a food + music festival, and both will be abundant. Our Chef’s Corner highlights sweetgreen’s Chef Stebner in addition to food features from José Andrés, Erik Bruner-Yang, Nick Wiseman, and Christina Tosi. Around the festival you’ll find Spindrift seltzer, True Chesapeake Oysters, Pete’s New Haven Style aPizza, Chaia Tacos, and Vigilante Coffee - to name a few. See our entire food menu here.
Going green. From alternative fuel and clean energy to composting and food rescue, we’ll have as little waste as humanly possible. Read more here.
Who’s on when. We announced the set times, so figure out your Saturday + Sunday agenda - save it to your phone or write it on your arm, whatever you need to do so you see all your faves.
Instagramming. From a “living” step-and-repeat to photo booths and of course, the food and music, sweetlife is meant to be shared on social. Charge your phone and get ready to make your friends green with envy. Be sure to use #sweetlife2015!
Juicing up. Prepare to sweat for a charge. Our sustainable pedal power activation with Siva Cycle and PureCity will let you pedal to charge your devices, and you can enter to win one of the bikes!
You’re in for the day. The Merriweather Post Pavilion has no re-entry, so once you enter the grounds, you’re there for the day - bring whatever you need for the day. But worry not, we’ve got everything you need for the day, from food and drink to charging stations and bathrooms.
Know your zones. The sweetlife festival has two stages, a Chef’s Corner, a market, an art cafe and an eco store. Check the map here.
Lockers. Carrying your stuff around means you’re less able to dance. Drop your things off at a secure locker and get down - gotta free up those hands for food and Instagramming.
Tickets are still available. Buy your last-minute tickets online at ticketfly.com, or get them at the festival.
From these ‘best of’ music highlights to our sweetgreen in schools students making smoothies with Mark Bittman, sweetlife 2014 was filled with some unforgettable experiences. Now it’s time to showcase a few of the most mouthwatering food moments.
Some festival attendees chose to keep it light and fresh with our VB6™ salad.
What was your favorite thing you ate at sweetlife? Share it with us on Instagram or Twitter with the hashtag #sweetlife2014, and keep an eye out for more 'best of’ moments, exclusive artist interviews, and the official recap video.
April is here, which means it’s time to get to know your new seasonal salad:
cooled quinoa + farro with organic arugula, shredded kale, organic roasted tofu, roasted asparagus, green and red peppers, shredded carrots, fresh basil, and toasted almonds; topped with our housemade carrot chili vinaigrette
At sweetgreen, we’re all about unique combinations that inspire, which is why we’ve decided to collaborate with Momofuku’s Kaizen Trading Company to create the Momofuku Hozon dressing, available June 2014 at our NYC locations.
What’s Hozon, you ask? Watch this video to find out.
This presentation of the June Hozon salad is narrated by David Chang (Momofuku Founder) and was produced by creative studio GEORGIA.
10.7.14 - If you’ve been following us on Instagram, the wait is over!
We’re excited to introduce you to sweetgreen’s new menu featuring a more robust seasonal offering and a handful of new signature salads and grain bowls.
It’s a known fact that food tastes best when it’s in season, so we’ve thoughtfully evolved our menu to align with the five growing seasons on the East Coast. This not only allows us to serve you more delicious and nutritious local produce, but also enables us to better support our local farmers and communities.
What can you expect?
A seasonal offering with multiple salads and soups that rotates five times per year. We know you loved having a new salad each month, but we’re confident you’ll love this even more.
An updated signature lineup featuring new salads like the Rad Thai, Hummus Tahina, and Avocobbo, along with two new wild rice-based salads: the Wild Child and Harvest Bowl. We’ve been testing these menu items at the sweetgreen Dupont Test Kitchen, and the feedback has been phenomenal!
Favorites like the Kale Caesar, Guacamole Greens, Spicy Sabzi and Earth Bowl are here to stay, while a few salads had to go to make room for the new signature lineup. All of the new salads incorporate even healthier, more sustainably-produced ingredients – something we are proud to share with you.
In an effort to streamline our offering to focus on what we do best (salads), and offer healthier grain options, wraps are no longer part of our menu. We encourage you to try one of our new grain-based signature salads, or make your own with wild rice or quinoa + farro, for a hearty replacement.
And now, a word from Michael Stebner, our Director of Culinary Innovation and the man behind our new menu:
We all know that certain fruits and vegetables grow only at specific times of the year. It’s why we eat watermelon salads in the summer and drink pumpkin lattes in the fall.
At sweetgreen, we’re committed to changing the food system and being a positive force in our local communities. Starting this fall, our menu will be aligned with the five growing seasons on the East Coast. As the seasons change, our menu will evolve five times a year to incorporate even more fruits and vegetables from our farmers.
Eating seasonally is good for everyone and everything involved. It’s when fruits and vegetables are at their peak flavor and at their highest nutritional density, making it the best and healthiest way to eat. From the minute one of our farmers picks an apple from a tree, the taste and nutritional value of that piece of fruit starts to decline.
Second, seasonal eating is best for the environment. By reducing the distance between you and your food, we can eliminate excess gases used to transport produce across the country.
But the best part about sourcing local, in-season ingredients? It allows us to support the communities that define us.
Thank you for continuing to stand behind our commitment to changing the food system and for living the sweetlife with us every day. We’re excited to celebrate each and every growing season with you!
- Michael Stebner
Questions or comments? Take a look at the full Fall Menu, or shoot us a note at info@sweetgreen.com. We can’t wait for you to stop by and #tastetheseason!
