Food

How Sam Polk is making healthy meals accessible and affordable in food deserts across the U.S.

The founder and CEO of Everytable is expanding the variable-pricing, grab-and-go concept to more locales.

 This edition of  Menu Feed is brought to you by Big Ass Fans.
Big Ass Fans

Sam Polk, founder and CEO of Everytable, launched the social enterprise grab-and-go concept in Los Angeles in 2015. His goal was to provide healthy, affordable meals in neighborhoods that are often classified as food deserts.

The chef-inspired food is prepared at a central commissary to keep pricing low and is delivered to Everytable store locations, refrigerated vending machines and directly to consumers. The customer base includes more affluent diners, too, and Polk follows a variable pricing model, charging according to zip code. But the menu of salads, wraps and warm bowls, which includes best-sellers like Jamaican jerk chicken with coconut rice and salmon adobo, resonates across all locales, he says.

Sam Polk
Sam Polk

Everytable now has 33 locations (its newest opened this spring in New York City). Polk forecasts reaching 55 units by the end of 2022, with plans to expand to Chicago, Philadelphia, San Francisco and other urban areas. Listen as he describes Everytable’s social mission, craveable menu, funding strategy and future growth.

Subscribe on Apple Podcasts

Subscribe on Spotify

Also, we are now on Alexa. Log into your Amazon account, look for “Menu Feed podcast” to enable the skill. Once it’s enabled, all you need to do to listen is say, “Alexa, play ‘Menu Feed.’”

Members help make our journalism possible. Become a Restaurant Business member today and unlock exclusive benefits, including unlimited access to all of our content. Sign up here.

Multimedia

Exclusive Content

Financing

Despite their complaints, customers keep flocking to Chipotle

The Bottom Line: The chain continued to be a juggernaut last quarter, with strong sales and traffic growth, despite frequent social media complaints about shrinkflation or other challenges.

Operations

Hitting resistance elsewhere, ghost kitchens and virtual concepts find a happy home in family dining

Reality Check: Old-guard chains are finding the alternative operations to be persistently effective side hustles.

Financing

The Tijuana Flats bankruptcy highlights the dangers of menu miscues

The Bottom Line: The fast-casual chain’s problems following new menu debuts in 2021 and 2022 show that adding new items isn’t always the right idea.

Trending

More from our partners