Pour a little Avocado Ranch out for a homie.
Late last week, we received a tip via the Ogle Mole Network that the venerable backwards Salad And Go on N. May has closed.
If you remember, it was the one that was either intentionally or unintentionally designed and built in a bizarro backwards layout in an awkward spot next to Red Carpet Car Wash. It made that weird Sprouts parking lot across the street feel like an expertly designed parker’s paradise.
Anyway, according to the Mole, the place quietly closed and—naturally—didn’t bother taping a sign to the drive-thru ordering window to inform customers:
As the Mole, I like Salad And Go for a quick meal and have stopped by that one a few times since it opened. I’m not trying to embellish here, but the parking lot really was a mini-clusterfuck and obviously not made for incompetent Oklahoma drivers. There was no flow, it felt unnatural, and you had to access it from a residential street. It was like it belonged in England or inside a mirror maze. Nothing made sense!
When I broke the story last year, there was debate on the message boards about whether the building was intentionally built backwards, or if it was a construction mishap that nobody noticed until it was too late.
Although I don’t think the answer to that really matters—either way, someone looks stupid—I could see it being intentional. Architecture mimics life and culture, and if it can produce the Art Deco of the Jazz Age or the Brutalism of the Cold War, it can definitely spit out the Backwards Idiocracy of the TikTok era.
Then again, this just feels like a big oversight and accident. They either knew it was built weird and went forward with it, or didn’t notice until it was too late. Knowing that, it’s probably not a surprise that the chain is having a hard time running their regularly built restaurants, much less a backwards one.
Via The Oklahoman:
Salad and Go closing 41 locations across the US.
Texas-based Salad and Go plans to close several dozen locations, including some in Oklahoma, according to reports.
Salad and Go is a drive-through concept serving food designed by a Michelin-starred chef, and has more than 140 locations across Arizona, Texas, Oklahoma and Nevada...
Tattersfield reportedly said that not all Oklahoma locations would be closed; in fact, he said, the decision is meant to "allow us to focus on strengthening the Dallas metro area and Oklahoma."
Yep, they’re closing stores in parts of Texas to double down on places like Oklahoma City, but promptly close a location along a heavily trafficked thoroughfare in the heart of OKC? I think we know whether the backwards design was planned.
Anyway, it will be interesting to see what happens to the building. Will it be retrofitted to become the metro’s first backwards Scooter’s, or will it be demoed and flipped into another HTeaO?
Personally, I hope they save the building. Maybe the backwards restaurant can become to the N. May Ave. District what the Milk Bottle Building is to the Asian District—an analogy that only makes sense if you’re an OKC resident.
Stay with The Lost Ogle. We’ll keep you advised.
