Citigroup trader-turned-culinary entrepreneur Lily Rivkin had a hard time finding a simple off-premise meal made with minimal ingredients—unless it was a salad. So she decided to create a restaurant that filled that need.
She began by training with an instructor for seven months, then developing a collection of recipes, each using seven ingredients or less including seasonings. That was the start of Rooted, a New York City fast casual launched earlier this year that’s “rooted” in simplicity and transparency.
“With this ethos of simplicity and transparency, we can cater to the 76% of Americans that adhere to some form of diet, whether it's keto, vegetarian, allergen- or gluten-free, etc.,” said the 29-year-old Rivkin.
Rooted currently operates with just 46 ingredients, and will never go above 50, she added, “so it really makes operations very streamlined. We use very minimal equipment—just a combi oven and flat top—and consumers build their own meals with fresh food, cooked to order. Our biggest competitor is the homemade paper bag lunch.”
Rivkin also designed Rooted’s packaging, a divided box that keeps each component separate. Unlike other healthy fast casuals, where guests build bowls and “the flavors all bleed into the others,” she said, here guests choose a protein, vegetable or two, starch, sauce, etc. and each ingredient retains its own unique flavor—unless the eater chooses to remove the dividers and mix them all up. “The reason I do this is because, as a chef, I want to curate the perfect bite,” she said.
The mix-and-match template
Rooted offers two animal proteins—an antibiotic-free chicken paillard and flat iron steak. Customers can choose both in either the “simply” style seared with garlic-infused olive oil, salt and pepper, or a spicier peppercorn crusted prep. Gigante beans and curried chickpeas are protein options for vegetarians.
From there, they can add a starch (sweet potatoes, rice or roast potatoes), and a choice of one or more vegetables from over one dozen. These include sauteed baby artichokes, asparagus, sauteed portobellos, spaghetti squash with olive oil, garlic and tomato, and summer corn salad.
Summer Corn Salad is made with just six ingredients, including salt and pepper.
The house-made sauces took a little more R&D, but the variety elevates the customization experience, Rivkin believes. All eight are prepped and pre-batched daily and include pesto, chimichurri, ginger-scallion, whipped garlic, jalapeno verde and pomodoro, as well as seasonally changing options.
Diners mix and match to build their own Market Plates, choosing a three-, four- or five item Bounty box plus one sauce; prices range from $14.50 to $19.15.
When Rooted opened, chicken was the only animal protein on the menu “and I didn’t think I'd be adding a new protein for years,” said Rifkin. But the flat top grill inspired her to source and test a few different steak cuts from purveyors Pat LaFrieda and Chef’s Warehouse. “We started experimenting and landed on a prime flat iron,” she said. “I’m not the biggest carnivore, but dinner traffic is strong, so this makes sense and is delicious.”
The flat iron was introduced when the summer menu launched May 1, along with Rivkin’s favorite new item: the Summer Corn Salad. The fresh, dairy-free salad is a simple combo of corn, scallions, rice vinegar, olive oil, salt and pepper. Other seasonal additions include asparagus, portobellos, zucchini and a tomato-basil sauce.
Growing up in France, Rivkin really wanted to add a ratatouille to the summer menu, but she couldn’t get her favorite recipe down to less than seven ingredients. Cauliflower steak also went into the discards pile for now, as it’s too difficult operationally, she said.
No-clash packaging
During the development of Rooted, Rivkin had as strong a vision about the packaging as she did about the menu. First and foremost, the components had to be kept separate.
“I wanted something that was a bento box meets the dimensions of a salad box meets a lunch box,” she said. “I drew my vision on paper, explaining how the box folds and the removable dividers. Then I essentially sent a road map to various factories and said ‘can you do this and how, and what’s the lead time, how frequently can you produce it, etc.’ It took six months of back-and-forth shipments, testing the boxes and understanding portion sizes.”
Graphics reinforce the simplicity and transparency of the menu.
Each box holds about a pound of food, said Rivkin, but customers at first thought it looked small when compared to the usual fast-casual bowls. Regulars have been won over. The divided boxes are disposable, leakproof and recyclable, but Rivkin said the material they’re made of is a “trade secret.”
What’s next
Rivkin is a fan of social media for the immediate and direct connections she can make with current and potential diners. She extends the restaurant experience through Instagram stories and gets feedback on menu ideas. For Rooted’s summer menu, for example, she posted a poll describing some of the vegetables in test.
“We knew we were thinking asparagus, zucchini and mushrooms, and when we got the responses to my poll, they showed that we were going in the right direction,” she said.
The responses also help in forecasting inventory. If more positive feedback comes in favoring zucchini over asparagus, for instance, Rooted can order more of the former.
Moving forward, Rivkin is exploring adding seafood to the menu, zeroing in on salmon and shrimp.
She is also exploring expansion into other New York City neighborhoods from Rooted’s current single location near Madison Square Park—home of the original Shake Shack. Growth is still in the planning stages, but investors will not be involved, she said.
“When I thought of this concept in 2022, it was with minimal seating—just two bar seats,” Rivkin said. “And what I've learned from my current space is that people do want to eat onsite, especially when it’s very cold. I still want a small footprint, but I do think it's important to have at least two tables so you're not chasing people out.”