When Chipotle’s Cultivate Next venture fund made a minority investment in Brassica Sandwiches & Salads in 2024 — making it the first restaurant concept to receive an investment from the fund — it wasn’t just a smart bet on a growing, trend-forward concept.
It was also something like destiny.
After all, Kevin Malhame, founder and CEO of Columbus, Ohio-based Brassica, worked as a Chipotle GM early in his career. And he swears that he had a dream when Brassica first opened that Chipotle bought it.
“Brassica was not intended to be something for Chipotle, but as we created it, and then when it finally opened, it was absolutely in my head: This is the perfect complimentary concept to what Chipotle is doing,” he said.
The journey from Chipotle to Brassica and back wasn’t a straight line, however. Out of college, Malhame spent a year in Hillstone Restaurant Group’s management training program before his Chipotle GM stint. In 2004, he founded Northstar Café, a casual, all-day concept with high-quality and often locally sourced ingredients plus special attention on best-in-class operations and unique design and architecture.
Malhame’s brother, Darren, joined as a partner shortly after Northstar opened, and the concept grew to six locations across Columbus, Cleveland, and Cincinnati.
Early in Northstar’s growth, Malhame attended Pal’s Sudden Service’s renowned Business Excellence Institute in Tennessee (now the McClaskey Excellence Institute), which teaches operational excellence.
“One of the things you admire about Pal’s is that it’s extremely simple. And by keeping it simple and focused, you realize, gosh, these management standards that we’ve had for years at a restaurant will work even better in a simpler environment, in a smaller environment,” Kevin Malhame said. “[We thought], what if we did something that was like Northstar — same approach to ingredients, great service, great architecture — but much more focused on something small and simple?”
They got that chance when a landlord offered them a space in Columbus’s Short North neighborhood, not far from Northstar’s first location. The Malhames opened the first Brassica (the name refers to a genus of vegetables) in that space in 2015, designing the concept to highlight great ingredients, service, and design in a small-footprint, counter-service package. The Malhames’ Lebanese heritage inspired them to incorporate Mediterranean flavors, but they weren’t paying much attention to rising fast casual players like CAVA. Malhame said they first and foremost see Brassica as a sandwich-and-salad place.
Brassica’s sandwiches feature organic pitas filled with a guest’s choice of fillings, while salads include a choice of greens, grains, and fillings. There is also a hummus plate available, with a side of pita and choice of toppings.
The main filling options are falafel, slow-roasted chicken shawarma, braised beef brisket, and house-pickled veggies like eggplant, roasted carrots, and cauliflower. Additional toppings include hummus, baba ghanoush, crispy onions, pita chips, pickled veggies, and a variety of sauces. Fries, pita, or a chocolate chip cookie can complete the meal, as can beer, wine, or multiple house-made beverages.
Similar to Northstar, Brassica’s early growth was calculated; the second location didn’t open until 2018, and by the time of the Chipotle investment in 2024, it had opened a total of six locations between Columbus and Cleveland.
Still, they always knew Brassica was in a much better position to scale than Northstar. And as luck would have it, Chipotle’s secondary headquarters is in Columbus, which helped put the brand on that company’s radar.
“When that email [from the Cultivate Next fund] came in, I felt very well prepared to have the conversation,” Malhame said. “Even though we weren’t looking for money or anything like that, I thought, ‘Ah, I’ve been waiting for your call.’”
As a minority investor, Chipotle mostly serves as a resource for Brassica, giving the brand strategic support that most restaurant chains could only dream of. The most significant change since last year’s investment has been access to leases, Malhame said; Brassica plans to open six new locations in the next 18 months, including in three new markets: Cincinnati, Indianapolis, and Houston.
“Operating the restaurants at the highest level is the thing I’m most passionate about long-term,” Malhame said. “But I’m not going to lie, I’d love to do that next to every Chipotle in the country. And I think it’s totally possible.”
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Dining and Cooking