Founders Table Restaurant Group, the L Catterton backed parent of Chopt and Dos Toros, announced Thursday that it has acquired Chicago based Protein Bar & Kitchen. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. The move pulls one of the city's better for you fast casual brands into a growing restaurant platform that says it plans to accelerate the chain's expansion.
As reported by Crain's Chicago Business, the new owner plans to keep Jeff Drake in place as Protein Bar's CEO and Jared Cohen as COO. The brand currently runs about 15 corporate locations and four licensed units, and the purchase is intended to support both company owned growth and a broader franchise push.
Airport Push And Nontraditional Sites
Protein Bar has been leaning into airports and other nontraditional spaces and now has locations at Chicago O'Hare, New York LaGuardia and Salt Lake City International, with plans for Boise, according to a company press release. Those openings have helped stretch the brand's footprint beyond downtown Chicago while it refines a smaller footprint franchise model.
Founders Table's Growth Platform
Founders Table was formed as a holding company when Chopt combined with Dos Toros, a deal backed by private equity firm L Catterton, according to Restaurant Business. The group has said the Protein Bar acquisition will be used to help the brand open company owned locations in new markets and scale in airports, transportation centers, college campuses and near health care facilities, as reported by Crain's Chicago Business.
What This Means For Chicago
Protein Bar launched in Chicago in 2009, the company notes on its Protein Bar & Kitchen page, and has been pursuing franchising as part of a plan to grow to roughly 100 locations in the coming years. Industry coverage from QSR Magazine lays out that franchise strategy and recent multi unit deals in the region.
For local diners, the acquisition leaves the brand's Chicago leadership and menu intact for now while shifting ownership to a team that clearly wants to scale the concept more aggressively. So the next visible changes are likely to show up in airport concourses and campus lobbies rather than as an overnight overhaul of your usual downtown Protein Bar stop.
