A 100 percent organic fast-food chain? All the yes!
Even if you try hard to avoid fast food, sometimes it’s just inevitable. You’re on a long road trip and need to get somewhere ASAP, but your stomach is rumbling. Or all your friends want to hit up Taco Bell, and you’re the only one who doesn’t (so you end up eating like ten tacos, because that’s how it goes, AMIRITE). But we’ve got some awesome news for those who are looking to eat organic food even when they’re on the run: Enter The Organic Coup, a 100% organic fast-food chain.
Former Costco executive Erica Welton worked at the company for 14 years before leaving to launch her brand new restaurant chain: The Organic Coup. “We saw this huge shift happening at Costco with people purchasing more and more organic food,” Welton told Business Insider.
Welton herself opted for mostly organic foods for herself and her family, but she noticed that when she was pressed for time, it was difficult to find organic meals on the go — something any clean eater has most certainly noticed as well.
“When they were babies, I made their baby food and tried to stay away from fast food. But as they got older, there just weren’t a lot of options,” Welton told Nation’s Restaurant News. “We would go to restaurants serving organic greens or veggies, but then the salad dressing wasn’t organic.”
Thus was the start of Organic Coup. Welton even got it certified by the USDA to make sure we can trust that its food is truly organic. “I didn’t really understand how few restaurants were certified,” she told Business Insider. “I was shocked to find out that we were actually America’s first certified-organic fast-food chain.” So what kind of foods does Organic Coup serve? Well, its specialty sounds pretty mouth-watering: spicy chicken, made from “organic, air-chilled chicken fried in coconut oil.” “It’s the most expensive oil we could have chosen, but it has good plant-based fats, no cholesterol, and it’s high in Vitamin A,” Welton told Business Insider.
You can also get the chicken on a bun with various sauces, in a salad, or in a wrap. Welton said of her fried chicken: “We have the Costco mindset focusing on doing one thing great.”
You can also buy a side of organic popcorn covered in caramel and chocolate. So maybe not *the healthiest*, but for those who are all about organic food, it’s pretty much a dream. “People like to say organic must mean healthy, but organic means clean food,” she told Nation’s Restaurant News. “The only way to eat non-GMO is to eat organic.”
It’s naturally a little bit pricier at $8.99 for a wrap, salad, or sandwich, but the reviews on Yelp are stellar, with 65 reviews so far giving it 4.5 stars.
“I finished my WHOLE wrap, which says a lot – I always take home leftovers,” wrote one reviewer. “. . .I had a wonderful experience at The Organic Coup and every member of the staff also seemed genuinely happy to work there.”
West Coast folks who want to try it out are in luck — in November, its first location opened up in Pleasanton, California. And over the next 15 months, Welton plans on opening 25 more restaurants — mainly on the West Coast, but she plans to expand to places like Chicago and New York City.
(Image via Twitter/The Organic Coup)
