Souplantation is coming back to Fountain Valley, California, in 2027, and California gets its own name back, too. The company reviving Sweet Tomatoes has confirmed that its planned Orange County restaurant will use the Souplantation name, returning to the former location at 11179 Talbert Avenue near Newhope Street, according to Eater LA.
There is no opening day yet, so the reunion remains a next-year proposition. Fountain Valley would be the revived operation’s third restaurant and its first announced California location, following Tucson’s April 2024 reopening and Fort Myers’ return this year.
A new owner for the familiar name
Souplantation began in San Diego in 1978, with salad, soup, pasta and bakery offerings at the heart of the business. Outside California, the chain grew under the Sweet Tomatoes name. The original parent, Garden Fresh, closed all 97 restaurants and liquidated in 2020 during the pandemic.
The comeback belongs to ST Three, a new ownership group that acquired the intellectual property and brought back members of the original corporate team, according to Restaurant Business reporting published by Nation’s Restaurant News. Like Tucson and Fort Myers, the planned California restaurant will be company-owned; no franchise plans have been announced. Soup ’n Fresh, which has opened independent restaurants in former Souplantation spaces, is a separate operation.
The revived operation is cashless, and gift cards bought from the old company before the revival cannot be redeemed at the new restaurants.
Old favorites are back on the menu
The company’s FAQ says it has kept the familiar recipes and all-you-can-eat format. Fountain Valley’s opening menu and prices have not been released. For comparison, Tucson and Fort Myers advertise weekday lunch under $13 and dinner under $14, with dinner pricing all day on weekends.
Joan’s Broccoli Madness already has company on the revived restaurants’ menu: Big Chunk Chicken Noodle, Yankee Clipper Clam Chowder, macaroni and cheese, blueberry muffins and buttermilk cornbread. Anyone who used to make a perfectly respectable salad and then develop a keen interest in the bakery has familiar territory to look forward to.
