By Jonathan Small | Edited by Dan Bova | October 16, 2026

The Coors family, renowned globally for building a legendary empire in the brewing industry, is officially passing its prominent salad business over to the rapidly expanding fast-casual brand Crisp & Green. In a major strategic consolidation within the healthy fast-casual dining sector, the Minneapolis-based Crisp & Green has formally agreed to acquire 33 established restaurants operating under the MAD Greens and Snappy Salads banners. These locations were previously owned and operated by Salad Collective, the specialized restaurant group founded and backed by the Coors family.

While the precise financial terms of the transaction have been kept strictly confidential by both parties, the implications of the buyout are substantial for the competitive landscape of health-conscious dining. Crisp & Green, which currently commands a strong regional presence with approximately 60 operating units, has outlined an ambitious transition timeline. Over the course of the coming months and years, the newly acquired MAD Greens and Snappy Salads restaurants will be systematically rebranded and converted to operate fully under the Crisp & Green banner.

This major corporate acquisition, when combined with the brand’s robust pipeline of previously scheduled restaurant openings, is projected to propel Crisp & Green across a monumental business milestone. Company executives anticipate that the combined footprint will successfully push the total restaurant count to the coveted 100-store mark by the end of 2026. Reaching the triple-digit milestone represents a significant achievement for the enterprise, arriving roughly a decade after the brand was first founded in the Midwest.

Beyond simply inflating the raw count of operating storefronts, the strategic acquisition delivers an immediate and impactful geographic expansion for Crisp & Green. The deal significantly deepens the restaurant chain’s operational footprint in several high-growth, economically thriving metropolitan areas, specifically strengthening its market share and real estate portfolio across Phoenix, Austin, Denver, and Dallas. These metropolitan areas have experienced massive population inflows in recent years, making them prime territory for concepts focused on fresh, health-conscious meal alternatives.

Even though Salad Collective is transferring the operational control of the storefronts to Minneapolis, the Coors family will maintain a vested interest in the ongoing success of the enterprise. According to the structural details of the agreement, the Coors family will remain actively involved with Crisp & Green moving forward, stepping smoothly into a strategic minority partnership role. This ongoing affiliation ensures that the institutional knowledge and local market insights cultivated by the Coors family’s restaurant group will continue to inform the strategic direction of the brand as it integrates the newly acquired properties.

While many fast-casual concepts targeting health-conscious consumers instinctively gravitate toward hyper-dense coastal population centers like New York City, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Seattle, Crisp & Green has deliberately charted a different geographic course. The company has aggressively bypassed the major coastal corridors, choosing instead to focus its corporate energy, marketing resources, and real estate acquisition strategy squarely on the interior heartland of the country.

Steele Smiley, the founder and visionary behind Crisp & Green, has long maintained that the middle of the American continent represents a massive, under-served market where emerging healthy restaurant chains face significantly less market saturation and direct competition. According to Smiley, consumer desire for clean, fresh, and nutritious dining options is by no means geographically restricted to the nation’s traditional coastal hubs. In numerous interviews and public statements outlining his business philosophy, Smiley has emphasized that diners in the heartland possess an equally powerful appetite for high-quality, vegetable-forward meals and fast, convenient dining experiences.

This targeted regional strategy has allowed the brand to build intense regional brand loyalty without engaging in the punishing real estate wars and astronomical overhead costs that frequently plague restaurant operators attempting to establish footholds in coastal mega-cities. By focusing on non-coastal cities and growing outward from its Midwestern base, Crisp & Green has steadily established itself as a dominant regional player in the fast-casual segment.

Furthermore, the trajectory of Crisp & Green’s corporate growth stands out within the broader contemporary restaurant industry due to its unique financial architecture. While a vast majority of expanding fast-casual concepts rely heavily on institutional venture capital funding, private equity injections, or complex debt financing arrangements to fuel their multi-unit expansion strategies, Crisp & Green has remarkably charted an independent course.

The enterprise has grown organically through a carefully balanced combination of company-owned and operated storefronts, strategic franchising agreements, and capital raised primarily through friends-and-family financial networks. By avoiding the intense pressures and short-term return expectations often demanded by traditional venture capital and private equity firms, founder Steele Smiley and his management team have retained a high degree of creative and operational autonomy. This financial independence has allowed the brand to make long-term strategic bets—such as acquiring a massive block of competitor locations from a legendary brewing family—without answering to external investment committees pressuring for immediate, high-risk financial returns.

The acquisition of MAD Greens and Snappy Salads from the Coors family’s Salad Collective marks the latest and perhaps most dramatic chapter in this ongoing growth story. By absorbing dozens of turnkey restaurant locations in established markets like Phoenix, Austin, Denver, and Dallas, Crisp & Green has effectively bypassed the traditional, time-consuming hurdles of real estate scouting, lease negotiation, and greenfield construction. Instead, the brand is utilizing an aggressive consolidation play to secure prime real estate and instantly establish a formidable physical presence in key metropolitan regions. As these 33 locations undergo the gradual transformation into Crisp & Green restaurants over the upcoming timeline, the brand moves ever closer to its ultimate corporate goal of operating 100 locations nationwide by the close of 2026.