Honeygrow, a fast casual restaurant with an emphasis on stir fry dishes and salads, has rapidly expanded across the Eastern and Midwestern United States since the company first launched in 2013.
The Philadelphia-based Honeygrow has seven locations in the Philly area, as well as spots in Baltimore, New Jersey, New York City, Boston, Washington D.C. and Chicago – and this fall, they’re coming to Pittsburgh.
The company will finally open the doors to their first location in Pittsburgh, and are aiming for an opening in early October. Pittsburgh’s first Honeygrow will be located on Highland Avenue in East Liberty, very close to the East Liberty Presbyterian Church and Capri Pizzeria.
One of the main hallmarks of Honeygrow is that everything served by the company is fresh, local, and made from scratch. This has been the goal of CEO and founder, Justin Rosenberg, since the very beginning.
“We like to make things as homemade as possible,” says Rosenberg. “All sauces and dressings are made from scratch. Whatever we can buy local we, try to do.”
Honeygrow’s menu, which can be viewed online, focuses on noodle stir-fry dishes and fresh chopped salads. Customers have the choice to pick from one of the suggested options, or create their own.
Some of the popular suggested options include a Spicy Garlic stir-fry (with freshly-made egg white noodles, roasted FreeBird chicken, bell peppers, broccoli, red onions, pineapples, parsley), Sweet Soy Five Spice stir-fry (with brown rice, togarashi spiced turkey, green beans, red onions, sesame seeds (sauce contains shellfish), the Make it Grain salad (with orange sherry vinaigrette, wheat berries, red quinoa, organic arugula, grapes, roasted carrots, feta, roasted cashews), and the Walnut St. Noodle salad (with walnut lemon dressing, freshly made whole wheat noodles, organic arugula, mushrooms, raw cauliflower, roasted walnuts, Parmesan crisps).
For dessert, Honeygrow has a “honeybar,” where guests can make their own fruit cup with toppings like honey (or maple syrup) coconut flakes, granola, dark chocolate chips, and house-made whipped cream.
To help decorate the space, Honeygrow has commissioned local artist Brian Holderman (who has a mural on the Port Authority building Downtown) to paint a Pittsburgh-inspired mural in the restaurant.
Honeygrow has also made an integration with technology a cornerstone of the company. All customers place their orders on touch screens, which streamlines the orderings process, and makes orders easier to customize. Customers can choose from Honeygrow’s dozens of toppings and sauces for their salads and stir fry dishes.
“Considering the number of ingredients we have, it would be a lot,” says Rosenberg. “I tried to think of how could make it really simple. I came up the the idea in ‘09, and eventually was able to have our own touch screen experience.”
Additionally, the restaurant uses a virtual-reality orientation to train employees. The company developed a software that allows employees to have interactive training experiences.
The brand is hungry to expand further into the Pittsburgh market; Honeygrow is currently looking for other locations in the Pittsburgh area
Honeygrow (105 S Highland Avenue)
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