If walking from the west on Fulton Market to reach the newest Beatrix location - aptly named Beatrix Fulton Market, you may risk a little dirt in your eye or a close encounter with a forklift, but grin and bear it.
The main restaurant offers up the same delicious dishes as other Beatrix locations, and just west of the dining room you'll find Beatrix Market ("Bea's"), for those who appreciate a quick self-service lunch. My coworker Amy Trang and I recently visited for a lunch hour bite.
Upon entering Beatrix Market, you see it immediately: Five rows of salad bar goodness, and the first row devoted entirely to greens. There are 14 options of greens in fact, ranging from the standard kale and spinach to more specialty options like watercress and local pea shoots. The best part is the freshness: no wilting or watery selections here.
“It’s better than Whole Foods.”
The other salad bar rows contain multiple options of beans, ancient grains, vegetables, fruits, marinated items, and even a hot bar with parmesan crusted tilapia, salmon cakes, vegan zucchini and yellow squash, sweet potato wedges and more. Specialty vinegars such as Rosemary-Peach grace the end caps.
This concept is particularly helpful for anyone on a specialty diet, such as Whole 30, the Autoimmune Protocol (AIP), or Paleo because of the ease of control and customization for your meal selection. While the best way to control what you eat is to buy and/or grow fresh vegetables yourself for your meals, sometimes that's not always possible to do every day, especially in the city. That's when places like Beatrix Market really stand out to help those of us looking to lead a veg-forward life even while dining out.
At $8.99/pound, this salad bar is priced comparably to the closest Whole Foods salad bar, but wins when you compare quality.
Beatrix is part of the Lettuce Entertain You restaurant group. I wonder if the owners stopped to consider how perfectly the name "Lettuce Entertain You" fits with their concept at Bea's.
Leave us a comment if you know of another salad bar in Chicago we should check out, particularly if it tops 14 options of greens. ;)
Beatrix Fulton Market is located at 834 W. Fulton Market in Chicago’s Fulton Market neighborhood. They are open every day for breakfast, lunch, dinner and weekend brunch. Stop by to check them out between 6am - 11pm Monday - Thursday, 6am - 12am Fridays, 7am - 12am Saturday, and 7am - 10pm Sunday.