Marley Hodgson III and Dan Long, the mad men behind Mad Greens Inspired Eats, always intended to sow the seeds of healthy dining along the Front Range. Lately, their crop of fast-casual salad joints has started to sprout like spring lettuce.
Three metro stores are up and serving a long list of “designed” and “custom-built” salads. Shops are scheduled to open later this month in Boulder and the Denver Art Museum complex.
Mad Greens also has a slate of paninis and soups. Multiple experiences with the pressed- to-order panini lead us to advise taking a pass. Ditto for the soups; twice we ordered tortilla soup and both times it was a gloppy mess.
But the designed salads – most named for great fictional madmen – are a different story entirely.
All 14 come in large and small sizes. We got a fork into six and enjoyed them all.
Crazy Ivan ($4.50/$6) was an earthy combo of greens, beets, pumpkin seeds and goat cheese made into a real meal with sliced portobello mushrooms ($2) and a splash of sherry-molasses vinaigrette. Napoleon ($4.50/$6) is a tangy twist on the classic nicoise salad, with smoked salmon ($3.25) instead of tuna.
On a day we were feeling a little dietarily naughty, we tried the General Custer ($6/$8), a crunchy combo of romaine, celery, carrots and zippy sliced buffalo chicken tenders all tossed in tangy blue cheese. Edgar Allen (sic) Poe ($4.50/$6) is a more elegant approach, combining greens, apples, pears, walnuts, blue cheese and marinated flank steak ($3.25) and a splash of port dressing. Would it have been too thematically much to ask for a sherry vinaigrette on this one? We could have – you can pick your own dressing at the end of the line – if we’d been thinking about Amontillado instead of looking for an open table.
One of our dining partners hit a home run with the Ty Cobb ($6.25/$8.25), a classic take on the melange of Romaine, avocado, tomato, bacon, onion, hard-cooked egg and chicken. And the Don Quixote ($4.50/$6) – greens, mango, avocado, roasted corn and Jack cheese topped with grilled chicken ($2) – wasn’t such an impossible dream.
You also can create your own salads starting with $2.50 or $4 in greens and add toppings at 50 cents each for most veggies, $1 each for things like cheese and nuts, and $2 to $3.25 for chicken, grilled portobello mushrooms, steak and fish.
Given all the options, you’d be crazy not to give Mad Greens a try.
Mad Greens Inspired Eats
Fast casual salad |1600 Stout St., Denver; 222 Columbine St., Denver; 8283 S. Akron St., Suite 130, Centennial; 1805 29th St., #1144, Boulder (Open Oct. 12); 1200 Acoma #B, Denver (Open Oct. 20); 303-GO-GREEN (303-464-7336)|75 cents-$8|
Lunch and dinner daily; hours vary by location; all major credit cards.
Front burner: Because you follow even the designed salads from the start to the register, you can ask for a little more of this or a bit less of that.
Back burner: Pre-assembled paninis? No thanks.
