A salad bar is a buffet-style table or counter at a restaurant or food market on which salad components are provided for customers to assemble their own salad plates. Most salad bars provide lettuce, chopped tomatoes, assorted raw, sliced vegetables, dried bread croutons, bacon bits, shredded cheese, and various types of salad dressing. Some salad bars also have additional food items such as cooked cold meats, cooked beans, boiled eggs, cottage cheese, cold pasta salads, tortilla chips, bread rolls, soup, and fresh cut fruit slices.
History
Many restaurants have claimed to have originated the salad bar concept. The Freund's Sky ClubSupper Club in Plover, Wisconsin, is believed to be the first salad bar. Russell Swanson of Swanson Equipment in Stevens Point, Wisconsin, who in 1950 had specialized in the manufacturing of bars for taverns, has stated that he is "most proud of designing and building that first salad bar." A 1951 Yellow Pages listing refers to the "salad bar buffet" at Springfield, Illinois, restaurant The Cliffs. Hawaiian restaurant Chuck's Steak House claims to have had the first salad bar in the 1960s, but the owner had worked for Buzz's Steak house on Oahu prior to starting his own restaurant and took the idea for the salad bar from there. Rax Restaurants – a Midwesternfast food chain similar to Arby's – claims to have pioneered the salad bar in the mid-1960s. The New York Times claims that salad bars first began appearing in the late 1960s "in midprice restaurants like Steak and Ale, featuring bona fide salad fixings to keep customers busy and happy until the real food came." Other accounts have the Salad Bar making its debut in 1964 at Andy's Mini-Diner, a South FloridaSeafood restaurant. Its owner, Angelo "Andy" Gangi claimed to have come up with the idea for the salad bar while observing military men in the chow lines at the officer's club of the Homestead Air Force Base, an eatery Gangi managed during the late 1950s.
Types
Salad bars may be "all-you-can-eat", where the customer may make unlimited plates or bowls of salad during the meal, or be limited to a single serving. Paying by weight of the materials in the salad is also possible; this option is particularly common for carry-out sales. Many supermarkets also include a salad bar in the produce or delicatessen section.
