Instead of using Beyond or Impossible meat, Stalk & Spade opted for proprietary products. Parent company Steele Brands closed all three Stalk & Spade stores November 1.
Minnesota-based Steele Brands abruptly closed its three Stalk & Spade restaurants in the Minneapolis area, the company announced November 1.
The plant-based restaurant chain was originally franchised, with two of the three locations owned by former Olympian David Backes and his wife, Kelly. Steele Brands, named for founder Steele Smiley, had reacquired the stores.
Steele Brands is the franchisor of salad chain Crisp & Green, which has 44 stores open and more on the way.
“We are not slowing down anytime soon,” Smiley said about Crisp & Green. About 200 stores are in development and the franchise is on its way to opening about one store a week on average, he said. “We intend to put all our resources in Crisp & Green, which just makes the most sense for us and the most sense with respect to our franchise partners.”
When Smiley, a vegan himself, opened Stalk & Spade in 2021, Crisp & Green had just seven stores open. “That’s certainly not the case today,” Smiley said.
Related: Salad Concept Crisp & Green Set to Expand With Largest Deal Yet
Steele Smiley, founder and CEO of Crisp & Green and Stalk & Spade.
In the announcement, Stalk & Spade cited the “unpredictable landscape of the plant-based meat and dairy alternatives industry, which has led us to make this hard choice.”
Bloomberg Intelligence reported the plant-based sector is set to surpass $162 billion by 2030. Vegan brands are growing in the franchising space, such as Veggie Grill, which has 33 restaurants open. D’lite Healthy on the Go is another, with at least six stores open. There’s also NoMoo, a California franchise looking to disrupt the meat industry by catering to meat eaters and plant-based eaters alike.
“Today, I think if you go to a NoMoo especially and have a double cheeseburger or a chicken sandwich, you wouldn’t know if it’s meat-based or not,” founder George Montagu Brown told Franchise Times this summer.
Related: Vegan Franchises Look to Please Vegetarians, Meat Eaters Alike
Smiley cited supply chain issues as another reason for the closures.
“It was a personal project that I was very passionate about,” Smiley said. “Unfortunately, the unpredictable nature of the industry … it just does not make sense for us to put effort into the brand.”
Steele Brands has a plan for the three Minnesota stores, located in Wayzata, Edina and Minneapolis’ North Loop, but Smiley declined to share more. He said the next steps for those stores will be announced in a matter of weeks.
Crisp & Green sells salads and grain bowls, along with smoothies and some specialty beverages.
The salad and healthy food restaurant sector is booming right now. Houston-based Salata ranked No. 302 on the Franchise Times Top 400 list this year, with 2022 sales hitting $120 million. Better-for-you chain Robeks ranked No. 409 on the list and finished 2022 with 91 stores open. Clean Eatz, a healthy, meal plan-focused brand, ranked No. 368, with $75.5 million in sales last year.
Steele named Kelly Baltes its new CEO in November 2022. He has almost three decades of industry experience and took over for Smiley, who now serves as board chairman. Baltes previously worked at Maggiano’s Little Italy.
Crisp & Green, which paused franchise sales to focus on opening those already in the pipeline, recently relaunched its franchise opportunity. It has stores open in 15 states and expects to finish 2023 with 30 to 35 net new unit openings.
“We’re very lucky to be in that position to bring healthy food to the rest of the United States,” Smiley said. “That’s just what we do. We wake up and think about it all day. That just came very easy for us to make that the focus.”