If you’re a Penn student (especially if you’re a corporate baddie in the summer), chances are you’re a slop bowl enthusiast. It’s hard not to become obsessed with them when they’re everywhere.
In most U.S. metropolitan cities, you’re likely to find a fast–casual slop–in–a–bowl restaurant on every block. Just Salad, Dig, and dozens of other fast–casual chains have transformed the bowl, once just a humble dishware, into a $14 meal that screams “wellness.” The bowl 2.0 epitomizes the MyPlate plan we all learned in elementary school: line your bowl with a hearty grain, layer in protein, and pick three vegetables ($2 of avocado if you’re feeling fancy). With buzzwords like “health–conscious” and “organic” seeping into Americans’ food vocabulary, the fast–casual obsession only grows, one Cava bowl at a time.
The “plant–forward” and speedy made–to–order bowls has taken urban millennials by storm and are now tapping into Gen Z audiences (if you’re on Locust Walk while reading this, try to spot a hexagonal Sweetgreen bowl). After all, the bowls are more than just meals—they’re a cultural statement. They embody the urban, aspirational lifestyle, signalling that you’re willing to spend a little extra to be healthy.
Behind the craze, in addition to SoulCycle aficionados, you’re bound to find strapped–for–time summer interns and full–timers. They’ve elevated the once–dreaded office "sad desk salads" to a vibrant, fresh, and customized medley of ingredients from the fast–casual restaurant around the corner. With roughly 62% of American professionals indulging in “desktop dining,” these workers don’t have much time to lose and fast–casuals know this. The CEO of Cava, Brett Schulman, explains how Cava uses sensors to track how fast lines move in peak hours to identify and design a solution to lower the “balk rate”—when customers give up because of the long line.
Furthermore, through the restaurants’ proprietary apps, corporate workers don’t waste a minute and can order ahead to skip the lunch lines. And, customers can DIY their meals from their cubicles, adjusting the heaviness of their dressing, choosing their salad to be mixed or not–mixed, and even naming their customized bowl from their iPhones. The autonomy of choosing your own bowl is a midday reward in the monotonous work cycle (even though bowls are typically eaten at desks while going through Slack), offering an opportunity to completely personalize and curate something for yourself. Arguably, the ownership makes the pricey kale worth it.
It’s important to note that fast food and fast casual are not interchangeable. Fast–casual restaurants are marked by a more upscale experience with higher prices, better quality, and customization. Unlike fast–food restaurants, fast casuals promote slow food—food freshly made from local ingredients—made fast. With the rise in popularity of fast casuals, fast–food chains have taken a hit and are seeking to imitate fast casuals. Even McDonalds, the microcosm of America, is struggling to swoon the fast–casual lovers, implementing made–to–order Quarter Pounders and renovating its interior design. Other fast–food chains, like Taco Bell, Wendy’s, and Subway, are under similar pressure to upgrade themselves.
So, when did we even switch from fast to fast casual? Fast casuals, like Chipotle, started appearing in the 1990s, but boomed in the 2010s after the Great Recession. With less discretionary spending, the fine dining experience was just too expensive. But consumers still wanted high–quality food. Behold, the love child between fast food and fine dining. Since then, fast–casual restaurants’ sales have multiplied more than three times as much as the fast–food industry and full–service restaurants.
However, the boom of fast casuals does not come without controversy. Critics say the "bowlification" trend gentrifies global cuisines, prioritizing convenience over authenticity. Major fast–casual chains that assert authenticity often strip dishes of their cultural context to make them more appealing to American consumers, who seek flavorful meals that fit within a quick 15–minute lunch break. After all, the bowls—combinations of traditional foods that do not reflect any real dish—are merely creations of fast–casual chains, not true representations of the cuisines they claim to serve.
Despite backlash, fast casuals are here to stay. In fact, with the billion dollar industry projected to grow larger in the future, the fast–casual takeover has just begun. Brands like Cava seek to bring their menu beyond metropolitan cities and to small towns. Sweetgreen even expects to become the McDonald’s of this generation.
So, it looks like we’ll all be eating slop bowls for a long time—they’ll be on campus, in the workplace, and even in our suburban hometowns. Say goodbye to a fast–food nation, because America has become a fast–casual one.
