The restaurant allows guests to create their own salads with a variety of ingredients and dressings or order a meal from the grill, such as blackened salmon, chipotle chicken or beef cheesesteak. Other options include paninis, sandwiches, wraps, pitas and whatever creation Chan comes up with next.
After 15 years in the restaurant industry, Chan opened 2n1 Salad Bar and Grill in 2015.
The space, which connects to the Society of St. Vincent de Paul’s Vincentian Family Center and Thrift Store, was formerly a restaurant, but he updated the kitchen with new equipment. Using local ingredients as much as possible fuels his creativity, he said.
“People can choose whatever they want to eat,” he said. “Even if we don’t have it on the menu. Just ask us, and we’ll make it.”
While waiting for food, guests can peruse a community bulletin board stacked with business cards, event posters and other local promotional items. Chan said he hung it up as a way to help people in the community in the same way that others have helped him by recommending his restaurant to friends.
As more guests return with friends or recommend the restaurant to others, he said many newcomers are surprised by the value and quality of the meal.
“When they try the food, they’re surprised,” he said. “If they get a large salad, they say it’s too much and they won’t eat it all, but then they do.”
Although he hopes to open a second location in the future, focusing on one location allows Chan to expand and innovate his menu so guests can have a different experience every time they come back.
“I always have more ideas to get better in the kitchen,” Chan said.
2n1 Salad Bar and Grill
901 W. Braker Lane, Austin
737-484-0909
www.2n1saladbarandgrill.com
Hours: Mon.-Sat. 7 a.m.-7 p.m., Sun. 10 a.m.-4 p.m.
