How Chop Stop President Joey Gonzalez Is Rebuilding the Salad Franchise With “No Plan B”

Chop Stop is a fast-casual salad franchise built around made-to-order chopped salads served quickly and conveniently. Joey Gonzalez joined the company in 2010, helping create its operating systems, training program and franchise model before eventually buying the business from its founder. The franchise grew to 28 locations by 2019, but the COVID-19 pandemic hit its largely mom-and-pop franchise system hard. This forced Gonzalez and his team to rethink how the brand should grow.

“When we decided to franchise, we made the decision to target small mom-and-pop operators,” Gonzalez said. “The exciting part was that these mom-and-pop owners were all in. This was their new thing…They had just as much enthusiasm for the brand as we did. Because we focused on those mom-and-pop operators, they were much more invested than if we'd gone after larger restaurant groups building portfolios. In hindsight, though, that hurt us because those mom-and-pop operators couldn't survive COVID.” 

Gonzalez is now looking beyond Chop Stop’s previous growth model. The company is developing smaller-footprint Chop Stop Smart Kitchens, exploring mobile units and considering co-branding opportunities that could lower occupancy costs and expand the brand’s reach.

Despite the challenges facing the restaurant industry, Gonzalez believes the brand still has a strong foundation. He points to Chop Stop’s four franchisees, who meet with the leadership team each week and remain closely involved in the company’s direction.

“I still think we're a solid brand,” he said. “I think we have a lot of life left. We just have to figure out how to navigate this new world. The good news is we have four outstanding franchisees who love this brand as much as I do…keeping them involved keeps them excited about where we're going.” 

Gonzalez joined 1851 Franchise Publisher Nick Powills on a recent episode of the “Meet the Franchise” podcast. A transcript of his interview with Powills has been provided below. It has been edited for brevity, clarity and style.

Nick Powills: How did you accidentally fall into franchising? What's your franchise backstory?

Joey Gonzalez: Back in 2010, I was running a restaurant in Los Angeles, and I wasn't happy with the company. I put my résumé out on the old interweb and got a bunch of hits. One of them was from a guy who was starting a new concept in the quick-service space. His idea was chopped salads.

I wasn't really interested in moving from full service into fast food, but his enthusiasm was infectious. Then he hit me with, "Listen, this is my idea. This is my plan. Your job is to do it, and you can do it all. You're going to build my company. The policies, the procedures, how we operate."

He only wanted me to hit a few markers. We had to sell chopped salads. Everything had to be made fresh to order. We had to get the customer out the door in five minutes or less. That was basically the framework he gave me. So I jumped on board, and we opened a restaurant in Burbank in 2010. I have to tell you, those first few months, I kept my résumé active. I was worried, and he wasn't. 

When we opened the restaurant, I was in the back building the systems, doing all the work with a couple of employees. He worked the register every day. He was religiously at the register, and what he saw immediately were return customers. It just clicked with him. This was going to work.

Nine months later, we opened the second location. That's when he said, "We're going to build this company into a franchise operation." Our mandate was to open four locations in different areas so we could figure out what we didn't know and what we needed to learn before opening the doors to franchising. While we were opening those restaurants, Mark, the owner at the time, was doing all the homework on franchising, getting our FDD together, which in California is a challenge.

Then an opportunity came up to open a fifth location. We realized we were really going to push into franchising, and we wanted the training experience to be excellent. That came from my background in the restaurant business. I'd been frustrated by how I was trained at previous jobs, and I wanted to do better.

So we built this Glendale restaurant, where I'm sitting today, specifically as a training restaurant. Instead of one production line, we built two. One line was strictly for serving guests so we could hit that five-minute ticket time. The second line was for trainees so they could learn in real time without being told, "Hey, it's busy. Get out of the way. Go chop onions while we take care of business."

This kept our trainees engaged through every meal service. At one point, we had 12 trainees going through here. In 2016, after operating our five corporate locations, we signed our first franchisee. By 2019, we had 28 locations. Then Mr. COVID came along, and that changed everything.

Powills: Where are you guys at today?

Gonzalez: We have 10 locations right now. I have four franchisees. Two are in Las Vegas, and two are here in California. We have three corporate locations and seven franchised locations.

Powills: A few things I'm curious about. Most people outside franchising almost think of franchising as just being a chain. You're coming from full service, working with a founder who had a clear vision and gave you the reins to build it.

Has franchising always fit into the culture you built, or has franchising been trying to fit into a culture built on hustle, grit and reacting to the customer? Because duplicating that kind of energy is tough. Someone can say they're passionate about a brand, but they also want to make a lot of money.

Gonzalez: When we decided to franchise, we made the decision to target small mom-and-pop operators. That was our goal from the beginning. We worked very hard to build a system that would support people who might not even have restaurant experience.

The exciting part was that these mom-and-pop owners were all in. This was their new thing. It was going to define them. They had just as much enthusiasm for the brand as we did. They did their research. They wanted to own their own business. They looked at all the salad and sandwich concepts out there and came to us because they wanted to do what we were doing.

Because we focused on those mom-and-pop operators, they were much more invested than if we'd gone after larger restaurant groups building portfolios. In hindsight, though, that hurt us because those mom-and-pop operators couldn't survive COVID. That's why we took such a crushing blow. Had we partnered with larger groups, they might have had the resources to support their restaurants through COVID. Our franchisees didn't.

The responsibility we had was saying, "Here's this great concept. It's working for us. Join us and help us grow." Then the rug got pulled out from under them. It was a rough period, and we're still feeling the impact.

Powills: It's hard because, theoretically, your approach makes sense. Your own story proves it. You came into this with your résumé still active. The owner believed in it. Then you started believing in it. You're not really talking about salad. You're talking about culture.

The business just happens to be salad, but there was something deeper behind it. Offering that opportunity to people who wanted to own something bigger than a job makes sense. Then COVID hits. Entrepreneurs are crazy enough to still see the light at the end of the tunnel. People who aren't wired that way often retreat into protection mode. They don't have the same tolerance for uncertainty.

Now franchising doesn't forget. You have to remind people the culture is still here. You've learned a lot. The restaurants still work. You have to find the right people again. The challenge is that well-capitalized, multi-unit franchisees often just look at the numbers. You're caught between wanting culture-driven franchisees and wanting financially strong operators.

Gonzalez: It's even more challenging in California and New York. We're pretty much closed to franchising in California unless someone has an amazing opportunity. We're still franchising, though. We have two new franchisees signed, one in Colorado and one in Virginia. Any future growth in California will probably be corporate growth. I'll be opening those locations myself.

We're also moving in a different direction. We're revamping the brand with smaller footprints and looking at mobile opportunities, especially in Oregon and Washington. Mobile trailers are huge there. They have giant food courts made entirely of mobile units. We're calling it Chop Stop Smart Kitchens. The idea is less dine-in and more food production. We want to focus on catering and customers who are in a hurry and don't need a dining experience.

Powills: Going through something like this, you have to dig deep to stay motivated. How do you silence that frustrated voice, like the version of you who kept the résumé active during those first nine months?

Gonzalez: You can actually see it on my wall. I have a sign that says, "No Plan B." That's how I keep it quiet. Two years ago, the owner retired, and I bought him out. This is all mine now. The last two years have been eye-opening in terms of what I didn't know about the restaurant business. I'd been doing it for nearly 50 years, but I'd always been an operator, never an owner.

Fortunately, I have two partners who've been with me since we started this company. They've actually been with me even longer because they came from my previous company. The three of us built everything: the policies, procedures, colors, menus, marketing materials. Everything was created by us. We're still passionate about that, but we're also trying to navigate a completely different post-COVID restaurant world.

Powills: Do you give yourself permission to still be proud of what you've built?

Gonzalez: Oh, yes. Absolutely. It ebbs and flows because we're struggling. At one point, we were close to shutting down a location. At the 11th hour, someone stepped in who loved the brand and wanted to keep that location alive. That's actually how I ended up with four franchisees. There are still great people who believe in this brand and love what we do.

The challenge is that everything costs more now. Before COVID, our regular customers came in an average of 2.7 times per week. We actually studied it. Today, that's down to 1.2 visits a week. I chalk that up largely to pricing. We have to charge enough to make money, but customers are pushing back on higher prices.

Then you add delivery. Before COVID, you could only get salads delivered from a handful of places. We were one of them. Now you can get a salad from practically anywhere. Every restaurant has to rethink how to earn its share of the market. That's probably what keeps me up at night more than anything else.

Powills: Two thoughts. First, you should still be proud. You've been doing this for more than 15 years. It's easy to compare where you are today to having more than 20 locations, but success isn't defined by anyone else. Even if you had one location, you're still a business owner and an entrepreneur. I think that's important.

Second, I think about self-serve frozen yogurt. When it first exploded, everyone wanted it. Eventually, there were so many brands that nobody had a point of differentiation anymore. What are you famous for? When you talked about the early days, you mentioned getting a salad in five minutes or less and fresh ingredients. Those things mattered. Maybe now you're getting grouped into "another salad place." There's an opportunity to redefine what you're famous for.

When I looked at your website today, I liked the locally sourced message. But if I were buying this brand, I'd go back to what made it special in the beginning while also asking, "How do we become more famous than everybody else?" When you started, there wasn't Cava. There weren't all these competitors. Then DoorDash and Grubhub came along, making every restaurant your competitor. If I were buying this brand, I'd go back to the nostalgia while asking, "If this were a brand-new concept today, what would we do differently?"

Gonzalez: That's really valuable input. You said something that really struck me. I do carry around the glory days. I built this company to almost 30 restaurants, and I compare today to what it was. But you're right. Two years ago, I bought the company. I'm responsible for what happens from this point forward. That's how I need to look at it. It's a new company.

Powills: Exactly. When someone buys a business through acquisition, they don't spend all their time comparing it to the past. They establish a baseline and create a new plan going forward. You bought an asset. The intellectual property is still there. The legacy is still there. Customers just need to be reminded why they loved coming back.

Don't carry the burden of every past high and low. Attack it like a new business. Everyone else is becoming more like a chain. Maybe your opportunity is getting back to being locally owned and operated while making the economics work. I love conversations like this because you're being authentic. You're not pretending everything is perfect. You're saying, "Here's where we are. We're proud of what we've built, and now we're taking it to the next level."

Gonzalez: You just put into words exactly what we're doing. Because we have no Plan B, the sky's the limit. We're looking at every opportunity. Chopped salads will always be at the core of who we are, but we're open to anything, even co-branding with another concept like a smoothie brand. Now you've got two complementary brands sharing the same space, lowering costs, sharing rent and attracting like-minded customers who want healthier options.

Powills: Not that this is a brainstorming session, because I could do this forever, but I love the "No Plan B" idea. I'd actually put something on the menu called "No Plan B." Turn it into a membership program. A weekly salad subscription that helps people commit to healthier eating.

"No Plan B" becomes more than a slogan. It becomes a mindset. If you launch a membership around that, you'd be one of the first brands in your category doing it. I'd make "No Plan B" one of your core values moving forward.

Gonzalez: I'll give you credit for that.

Powills: Just run with it. If a few weeks from now I look at your website and see "No Plan B," I'll know where it came from. I look forward to seeing where your story goes. I think you just need to throw some gasoline on the fire that's already there. Let's talk again a year from now. I think it'll be a very different story.

Gonzalez: I still think we're a solid brand. I think we have a lot of life left. We just have to figure out how to navigate this new world. The good news is we have four outstanding franchisees who love this brand as much as I do.

We have a weekly call where we discuss the company as a team instead of me just dictating decisions. Sometimes it's challenging because everyone has different opinions, but keeping them involved keeps them excited about where we're going.

Powills: Go back and listen to what you just said. Then go to your franchise website and blow it up, because right now it doesn't tell that story. You have four people who believe in this brand. Tell prospective franchisees, "Join our four and become number five." Show a picture of the four of you, even if it's just a Zoom call. Show the real people behind the business. Every franchise website defaults to generic franchising language. That means nothing. What you just said would make me interested. I'd want to know how to become part of that mission. Use that story as the foundation of your franchise site.

Gonzalez: Wow. Thank you.

Powills: Joey, thanks for doing this. Thanks for sharing your story. I look forward to seeing where it goes.

Gonzalez: Thank you, Nick. I appreciate your time.

Watch the full episode above or on YouTube.