This is No Longer Sparta: Sweetie Salad Opens First Proper Shop

By Jonty Dixon and Noelle Mateer

If we were to utter the words, right now, “that incident with the Spartan Warriors in Sanlitun,” what would come to your mind?

Your answer would likely depend on where you were in the summer of 2015. Summer 2015 was a wild time in Sanlitun. You could hardly reach Taikoo Li Starbucks without passing throngs of selfie-takers outside Uniqlo, where a viral dressing-room sex tape was filmed. People were still wondering what that tall building with the honeycomb patterning was going to be. Mojito Man was still around. And then, there were the Spartan Warriors.

On July 22, 2015, nearly 100 half-naked laowai paraded through Sanlitun. The (predominately white) foreigners sported Spartan warrior costumes, were fully shirtless, and held to-go boxes of leafy greens from Beijing-based salad-delivery company, Sweetie Salad. It was a bizarre publicity stunt the likes of which the Chinese salad-making industry never seen. Naturally, the police stepped in.      

Photos surfaced on Weibo of an officer arresting his sexy victims, one of whom had fallen on the floor of a Gongti Beilu pedestrian bridge. Did the guerrilla marketing pay off, though? To answer that, ask yourself: Have you yourself ordered Sweetie Salad? Have you heard of anyone else ordering Sweetie Salad? And, finally, did you know that Sweetie Salad has just opened its first proper restaurant, in Liangmaqiao?

No, you likely did not. But the brand-new store in The Grand Summit is attracting attention regardless, for a reason entirely less scandalous: its design. As you enter from the outside entrance, you are immediately faced with a mural of giant, colorful insects on the far wall behind the counter. Twisted wooden light fixtures curl around long wooden tables. A grassy green wall separates the salad bar from the private seating areas. Sweetie Salad’s first sit-down, brick-and-mortar location has since been featured on design and architecture blogs, including designboom.

Food, accessible via the bar, falls into three categories: cold salads, grilled items and hot entrees. We pick a feta, spinach and grilled pumpkin salad (RMB20, a steal), which is fresh and tasty. It disappears quickly from our plate.

We top our spinach cannelloni (RMB20) with honey pumpkin (RMB8) – and while not Italian-restaurant-level pasta, it is a perfectly nice foil to the spinach and feta salad. The honey pumpkin is the surprising star of the show – things that sweet shouldn’t be healthy. To wash down all this healthiness there is a decent selection of juices, coffees and teas (RMB20-40).

Staff here are remarkably helpful, and, equally remarkably, fully clothed. All in all, Sweetie Salad is a calm and quiet affair. Which maybe we shouldn’t be surprised by, given their last statement in 2015:

“Our ‘Spartans’ event yesterday generated far more interest than we had expected. […] After the incident yesterday, we sincerely acknowledge our lack of experience in organizing large scale, offline events as a startup company. We abided by the instructions from the police. In the future, we will advertise our brand and core values and serve our customers without affecting public order.”

We detect no public disturbance from their new location.

41, Bldg 1, The Grand Summit, 19 Dongfang Donglu, Chaoyang 朝阳区东方东路19号1号楼会所41号 (8532 6178)

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