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There's not an abundance of places in downtown Detroit to get a first-rate salad, unless you go upscale. But there are some.
On the cheaper side, I've gone to the Green Room on Congress, which sells salad by the pound. It's not bad. There's Zeff's Coney Island on Woodward and Fort Street, which makes a pretty legit Greek salad. There's Greektown, places like the Pegasus and the Golden Fleece. Grand Trunk Pub on Woodward makes a pretty impressive Caesar topped with salmon. And frankly, Potbelly's chickpea veggie salad is pretty good.
Now, here's the latest contender worth checking out: Seven Greens, which opened about a week ago at the Z Building at 1222 Library Street, just off of Woodward. The place is the creation of owner Kelly Schaefer-Janssen, who grew up in the Birmingham area, went to culinary school in New York and was a chef in Chicago and Nantucket.
It's not a new concept, but it's a trendy one going around the country.
It's a cafeteria-like setting where you order and the workers toss ingredients into a bowl and chop it up before serving. You can build your own salad or order one of the specialties.
I ordered the "Las Bear," which is iceberg lettuce, corn, black beans, cherry tomatoes, avocado, cilantro, organic blue chips, white cheddar & 7 Greens’ chipotle ranch sauce. I went with the creamy balsamic dressing instead. (All the salad dressings are made in-house from scratch daily and are gluten free).
They were out of ripe avocados, so I had them toss in some olives and chopped eggs. It's not cheap, it's not over the top. The salad with a Perrier came to $12.79.
But there was a lot. And It was pretty darn tasty.
What's more, there's bar-like seating along the front window, which was open, and it just happened to be a perfect day.
