Daniel Patiño Bought Salad and Go Back for $180,000

When a restaurant chain goes bankrupt, the leases and ovens go to whoever bids highest. The name usually goes with them. At Salad and Go, the part that fetched the least money was the part its chef wanted most.

A chef, a concept and a fast rise

Salad and Go opened in Gilbert, Arizona, in 2013, per Wikipedia’s account. It credits Tony and Roushan Christofellis with founding it and says they asked Chef Daniel Patiño to help develop the concept. ABC15 and FOX 10 call Patiño an original co-founder and corporate chef, so we describe him here as co-founder and executive chef. A 2021 CultureMap Dallas piece says he had run the kitchen at Bourbon Steak at the Fairmont Scottsdale Princess and cooked at The French Laundry and Daniel in New York.

The chain grew into Texas, Nevada and Oklahoma, hit more than 70 stores in Arizona and Nevada at its peak, according to Wikipedia, and was opening about a restaurant a week by January 2024. Then it came apart. In September 2025 it closed 41 stores, mostly in Texas. In January 2026 it dropped Texas and Oklahoma entirely.

August 2026

Salad and Go filed for Chapter 11 on August 4, 2026 and served its last customers the next day, closing all 70 remaining locations, FOX 10 and Restaurant Dive report. FOX 10 says the company pointed to rapid growth, supply chain issues, rising costs and a Cyclospora outbreak. Restaurant Dive adds waning consumer demand and the costs of earlier growth strategies, and notes the 2025 hire of former Krispy Kreme chief executive Michael Tattersfield, who closed weak stores and a costly Texas central kitchen.

Patiño’s reaction, as he told FOX 10: “I just felt like, you know, it can’t end this way, like I have to find a way to keep this going.”

Two auctions, two prices

The bankruptcy sold the chain in pieces. The big piece was real estate. Restaurant Dive reports that a court approved 7 Brew’s roughly $123 million bid for more than 60 leases, edging out Dutch Bros’ $105 million offer. KTAR puts the final deal at $123.5 million for 63 locations across four states; Wikipedia, citing an earlier report, gives a $143 million bid for 73 sites. The approved number is the lower one. Restaurant Dive notes that unsecured creditors were expected to be paid in full, which the debtor’s lawyers at Reed Smith called “an exceptionally rare outcome in a Chapter 11 case.”

The small piece was the brand. On October 14, per KTAR and Restaurant Dive citing court documents, Beyond Salt and Pepper LLC bought the Salad and Go name, trademarks and recipes for $180,000, and won one Gilbert store lease for $1. KTAR says Arizona Corporation Commission records show Patiño formed the company; a second $1 lease, in Mesa, was due for a hearing on October 20. Patiño’s partners are Mike Myers and Tom Misitano, co-founders of Hospitality First Concepts. “The opportunity just came and we just snatched it so far,” Misitano told azfamily.

What he says he’ll do differently

Patiño has been candid about the old menu. “Not happy with the chicken that we had before, transparently, right?” he told azfamily, and the group wants to bring back lemonades, and perhaps steak and shrimp. He told FOX 10, “I think there were some things that we could have done better and I think we learned from them.” To ABC15 he said, “We’re going to be very disciplined in how we do things, and we want to make sure that the brand thrives.”

The plan, as reported: company-owned restaurants in Arizona first, franchising nationwide later. The Gilbert unit sits at Williams Field Road and Higley Road, and FOX 10 says the group hopes it opens before the end of 2026. “Our goal is to open at least one location before the year ends,” Patiño told ABC15. “Lucky enough, we were able to get the IP,” he told FOX 10.

What to take from it

• A brand can be worth more to its maker than to a bidder. The big buyers wanted sites. Only a handful of people wanted the recipes and the name, which is why the price was small.
• Fast growth is the hard part to reverse. Every outlet’s list of causes begins with expansion that outran the business.
• A second try starts small. Two leases at $1 each and a promise of discipline is a very different company from 150 stores. Whether it works is not yet known; nothing has reopened.

Related founders

• Ben Francis Bought Back His Gymshark Stake — a founder renegotiating control of his brand.
• Eric Baker Was Fired From StubHub, Then Bought It Back — the rarer case of a founder buying back what he built.
• Tim Steiner Built Ocado for 26 Years — a founder facing the end of a long run.

Sourcing: the purchase terms ($180,000, the $1 leases, Patiño forming Beyond Salt and Pepper, the October 20 hearing, 7 Brew’s $123.5 million for 63 leases) are per KTAR and Restaurant Dive (October 16, 2026), both opened directly and citing court documents. Plans, the Gilbert location and Patiño’s “it can’t end this way” and “learned from them” quotes are per FOX 10 Phoenix (October 14, 2026); the goal of one store by year-end and the “disciplined” quote are per ABC15; the menu quotes and Misitano’s quote are per azfamily (October 14, 2026). The September auction details and Reed Smith quote are per Restaurant Dive (September 29, 2026). History and store counts are per Wikipedia, and Patiño’s earlier career per CultureMap Dallas (2021). The court filings themselves were not opened. No portrait is used: no Creative Commons photograph of Patiño was found on Wikimedia Commons.