Popular local salad chain Green + the Grain announces two St. Paul locations

The appeal of a fancy salad lunch is undeniable.

It's quick and fresh and won't leave you with a leaden stomach. Sure, sometimes it's a splurge, but at least it's a relatively virtuous one, right?

Lunchtime diners seem to agree, based on the proliferation of these grab-and-go spots in the skyway -- and the lines that pour out of them around noon every weekday. Downtown Minneapolis has four outposts of local salad chain Green + the Grain alone.

Now, that particular build-your-own salad shop is coming to St. Paul, promising not one, but two locations before the end of 2019.

In a statement posted to its social media accounts, Green + the Grain announced the new shops, one in Wells Fargo Place in the heart of downtown and the other in Lowertown's Great Northern Building. The Wells Fargo Place location will join two other popular salad spots in the area, Freshii and Sprout Salad Co.

Green + The Grain began as a food truck in 2014. The first brick-and-mortar restaurant opened in the downtown Minneapolis skyway in the summer of 2015, followed by a second location in 2016, a third in 2017 and a fourth Minneapolis location in December 2018.