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Chop5, a fast-casual salad restaurant chain launched eight years ago in Columbus, Ohio, wants to expand to central Indiana.
Co-founder Brian Mills said as many as 10 Chop5 locations can be placed in Indianapolis and its suburbs, with the first potentially opening in fall 2025.
The key to his timetable is finding franchisees who are able to partner with Chop5 on its concept of fresh ingredients and house-made dressings, Mills said.
Although the three existing Chop5 restaurants—two in Columbus and one in Orlando, Florida—are owned by the company, future growth depends on a franchise model.
Estimated total start-up costs for a Chop5 location range from $535,700 to $995,800, with the initial franchise fee set at $40,000. The founders of Chop5 have experience as franchisees for companies such as Papa Johns, Qdoba and Starbucks in multiple states.
The company hopes to recruit franchisees who aren’t novices to the restaurant industry, Mills said.
“I like the second generation in franchisees, so maybe somebody whose father has multiple stores in a market,” Mills said. “Now their kids are coming up and they can’t really grow because there’s no more territory in their old brand. This is the opportunity to take a newer brand and get a bigger territory.”
Chop5 specializes in signature chopped salads such as the Harvest Chop Salad, Korean Chicken Chop Salad and Kale Quinoa Chop Salad.
The restaurant’s name is a reference to a “build your own” menu option in which bowls are crafted from a base—such as lettuce, spinach, kale, quinoa or rice—and four additional ingredients.
“You can make a salad in a bowl as healthy as you want and you can make it as unhealthy as you want,” Mills said. “It’s really up to the guests and their preferences. But our goal was to create a lot of flavor and then have fresh, healthier products. Our dressings are all made in house. All of our ingredients are chopped in house.”
Indiana’s landscape of salad-focused restaurants is led by four Sweetgreen locations. The Los Angeles-based company opened its first restaurant in the state at the Fashion Mall at Keystone in 2022. Sweetgreen subsequently opened spots downtown, in Fishers and in Bloomington.
Green District, a Louisville-based salad chain, opened and closed five restaurants in central Indiana from 2019 through 2023.
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