Sweetgreen opening in North Loop next week with 'Chef Ann Kim Bowl' on the menu

We all know how much Ann Kim loves pizza. Now, we get to find out what the James Beard Award-winning chef puts on her salad.

The Pizzeria Lola/Young Joni/Sooki & Mimi chef and restaurateur, who recently appeared on Netflix's "Chef's Table: Pizza" series, is lending her name and recipe for the perfect salad to Sweetgreen.

The fast-casual salads and bowls chain launched in Minnesota last month at the Galleria in Edina. It will open its second Twin Cities location on Oct. 25, in Minneapolis' North Loop, taking over the former Moose & Sadie's, at 212 3rd Av. N., Mpls.

"The Chef Ann Kim Bowl" will be on the menu at both locations Oct. 25 through Dec. 6. It starts with a base of arugula and wild rice; mix-ins of carrots, onion and cabbage; and warm steelhead trout on top. It's finished with spicy cashew dressing and a squeeze of fresh lemon.

The company reached out to Kim "to come up with a salad that I would make for myself based on their ingredients," Kim said in an interview with the Star Tribune. "I wanted to come up with something that really highlighted some of the unique ingredients that they have."

She was immediately drawn to the spicy cashew dressing and the steelhead trout, "which I honestly did not think that it would be as good as it is, but it's incredibly fresh, it's super high quality, and you don't see a lot of that when you go to a fast-casual place."

Kim says she wanted to collaborate with Sweetgreen "because I love what they do. I think, for me anyway, they were the first concept to really launch this healthy, delicious, fast-casual salad concept, and now, I think if you look around at any given city, there's a lot of people that are emulating this concept."

Sweetgreen entered a crowded salad field in the Twin Cities. Steele Smiley's Crisp & Green is in expansion mode, with plans to reach 18 states, and Green and the Grain has multiple locations in Minneapolis and St. Paul.