Troy — A Metro Detroit brand that dates back to the 1970s, Olga’s Kitchen is starting a new chapter this month with the launch of a more customizable fast-casual restaurant concept.
Olga’s Fresh will launch its first restaurant next week in Troy. The new 60-seat location is different from the Olga’s Kitchen and Olga’s Fresh Grille locations in a few ways.
The salads, sandwiches, and bowls are customizable, allowing customers to see the ingredients and choose what they’d like in an assembly-line style similar to other fast-casual brands like Cava and Chipotle.
“It’s a new ordering experience. It’s build as you go,” said brand vice president at Olga’s Kitchen Ryan Jones. “We really feel like that is a great way to meet the guest where they are as the business has dramatically evolved over the last decade. What’s the most important piece is that the core menu items will never change.”
“It’s more about freshness, obviously, and people being able to see the fresh ingredients right in front of them,” Jones told The Detroit News at a preview of the new space earlier this week.
For Olga’s Fresh, the 56-year-old brand is leaning more into its Mediterranean and Greek roots, too.
Joining the classic soft and sweet pita bread, seasoned gyro meat, fried snackers and orange cream coolers are chickpea orzo, quinoa, edamame, peppery roasted vegetables and a seasoned tomato cucumber salad. Snackers even have a new accessory, roasted garlic hummus, along with the classic Swiss almond cheese spread.
When customizing a bowl, salad or sandwich, there are far more ingredient options, like roasted red peppers, marinated and seasoned tomatoes, sweet jalapeno peppers, roasted corn, quinoa and a creamy and spicy version of the house Olga sauce with a subtle kick.
Vegans will have options like the roasted vegetable and garlic hummus bowl and the Mediterranean harvest bowl, both highly customizable. As always, those who eat gluten-free can choose a salad, rice bowl or an Olga sandwich with the gluten-free bread.
The current Olga’s locations throughout Michigan won’t transform into Olga’s Fresh restaurants. Jones said that if this Olga’s Fresh location is as successful as they expect it to be — they surveyed around 1,000 people to see what customers wanted and “fresh” was the most favored theme — they may add two more in Metro Detroit over the next year.
Jones sees Olga’s Fresh as “an evolution of the brand.”
“I think we’re keeping everything that’s really special about the brand, and that will never, ever change. But there are some things we feel we can do to meet the new consumer and the way people are eating now. We want it to be value, fresh and convenient,” he said.
“I think it’s largely about hospitality, too. We want more people to dine in, and this provides a more convenient, fast way, if you’re on your lunch break, to come in and get through the queue in 5-7 minutes.”
Founded by groundbreaking entrepreneur Olga Loizon in Birmingham in 1970, Olga’s Kitchen was purchased by Michigan-based TEAM Schostak Family Restaurants in 2015. Loizon’s son Bill is still in the mix, sitting on the board of the Olga Loizon Memorial Foundation, which has distributed tens of thousands of grants to women entrepreneurs in Michigan.
The first Olga’s Fresh, 770 E. Big Beaver in Troy (in a former Mod Pizza space) will start serving daily next week. Visit olgas.com for more information.
mbaetens@detroitnews.com
This article originally appeared on The Detroit News: Olga’s Fresh debuts next week in Troy with more Mediterranean flavors
Reporting by Melody Baetens, The Detroit News / The Detroit News
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
By Melody Baetens, The Detroit News | USA TODAY Network
