Salata Offers New Look At Salad Making
Salata Offers New Look at Salad Making
By VALERIE SWEETEN
Chronicle Correspondent
Berge Simonian, a Briar Forest-area resident, wants his customers to know that he has their health at the top of his list.
Simonian is the owner and concept developer of Salata, Create Your Own restaurants which specialize in custom-made salads and wraps.
There are six locations from Spring to downtown Houston and two in Dallas.
The newest location opened last month at 6620 Fannin at Dryden.
This family-owned business began in 1988 when Simonian took a chance with his first restaurant, Hot Press, in the Houston downtown tunnel system.
Salata evolved in 2003 after Simonian saw salad lines grow at his second restaurant location, Simon’s Café at Allen Center in the downtown tunnel.
“Every Monday, you saw the hot food line get shorter. My goal was to expand salads and do it better than anyone else,” Simonian said.
The Salata menu offers four types of salad greens, nearly 50 add-on ingredients and several gourmet, handmade dressings. Prices start at $8. Chicken or seafood is an additional fee.
Tony Kyoumjian, Simonian’s partner and brother-in-law, said Simonian has been successful because of his vision and focus.
“He doesn’t accept less than 100 percent,” Kyoumjian said. “Everything is top quality. I like working with him because he’s always thinking of the business and the future.”
Simonian’s look to the future has guided him toward developing franchises.
Emily Durham is the president of Restaurant Connections, a restaurant consulting business and has assisted Simonian in his quest to expand.
“We did a very large customer survey to see what they have liked or didn’t like. He wants to be 100 percent in touch with his customers to gain a better understanding of where he could go next. He has a modern day version of a salad bar that really appeals to a lot of people. He going to be a tremendous success in the Medical Center,” Durham said.
Simonian, the second of four children to Izabel and Simon Simonian, was 18 when he came to Texas to study engineering at the University of Texas at Arlington after civil war broke out in Beirut in 1976.
By 1979, Simonian had moved to Houston and began working in restaurants.
His success has come after years of hard work, he said.
“I wasn’t afraid to roll up my sleeves. I found the locations and hired good people. The hardest part of owning a restaurant is being consistent day in and day out. This is one of the things we conceive at Salata with freshness, speed and price. We’ve had growing pains, but we adapt and be flexible to the situation.”
Simonian’s ultimate goal is to please his customers.
“For a salad to be really good, you want the ingredients to be absolutely fresh,” Simonian said. “The dressings have to have great flavor. You have to toss the salad to distribute the dressing evenly. That’s when you have a great salad. I developed Salata to give diners the best possible salad.”
Catering, delivery and fax orders are available.
Salata’s other locations are 919 Milam, 1200 McKinney, 711 Louisiana, 500 Dallas, 14515 Katy Freeway just east of Highway 6, and in Vintage Park at Louetta and Highway 249, 130 Vintage Park Blvd.
For more information, visit www.salata.biz.
