The Lost Art of Salad Bars at Connecticut Restaurants & Grocery Stores

I was so excited to go to Chuck's Steakhouse in Danbury last weekend, not for their incredible steaks, I was psyched to eat from their wonderful salad bar.

Where have the salad bars of Connecticut gone? Do you remember the ones at Stop & Shop? Ruby Tuesday? Hometown Buffet? They're all gone, replaced by nothing. Keeping 40-50 items healthy enough to sell to us under the watchful eyes of our health departments is tough, but the concept of a salad bar has all but disappeared in Connecticut, especially since the pandemic.

I understand that 200 people coughing, sneezing, and wheezing over your Romaine was a bad idea in 2020, but it's 2025. Buffet restaurants came out of hiding in Connecticut in 2021-22, but the salad bars of our grocery stores and stand-alone salad restaurants haven't come back. Why?

Fresh produce has come up in price in recent years, the days of 5 ears of corn for 99 cents went away in 2016, but you can still find a head of lettuce for $1 anywhere. I loved the salad bar at Stop & Shop, I'd load all of the Spring mix/Blue Cheese/Sunflower Seeds and Croutons I could inhale into that to-go container and walk out for under $10. Today a pathetic side-salad costs $7 at a sit-down restaurant.

Some in Connecticut still do it right - Chuck's Steakhouse in Danbury has the classic set up I've been missing - 30-40 different ingredients. Salad Bar knows our pain, they have three Connecticut locations in the greater Hartford area - Glastonbury, Rocky Hill, and Middletown. Most of the hundreds of smoothie joints offer pre-made salad options, but I like to craft my own.