At Crushed Red, fast food goes hand-in-hand with fresh food. Known for chopped-to-order salads and handcrafted pizzas, the St. Louis-based franchise in 2015 brought its innovative model to Denver. A second location opened there this year, with plans for four more to follow. Crushed Red also will open locations in St. Louis and Columbia, Missouri, in the coming months.
At the helm are veteran restaurateur Chris LaRocca and his business partner Powell Kalish, who founded the restaurant together in 2012 in Clayton. Later it was followed by locations in Kirkwood and Creve Coeur. Altogether, LaRocca expects a total of 11 restaurants to be up and running by the end of 2016.
LaRocca’s roots run deep in the restaurant business, and he’s played a central role in many local eateries, including Chandler Hill Winery, Tony Roma’s and Casa Gallardo. He spent more than a decade working for a corporate restaurant firm before leaving in the ’90s to open the now-shuttered Crazy Fish, which he calls the first chef-driven restaurant in Clayton. He also runs Culinary Architects, a restaurant development management company.
Inspiration for Crushed Red hit in the early 2000s. “I was developing concepts for a group in Florida, and I spent a lot of time traveling to understand fastcasual,” he explains. “This was before fast-casual mainstreamed, and I put aside nuggets of information that later became the foundation of Crushed Red.”
In 2011, LaRocca’s longtime attorney Ralph Kalish asked if he would talk to his son, Powell, who wanted to get into the restaurant business. “I tried to talk Powell out of it, but he said, ‘You’re either going to help me or I’m going to find someone who will,’” LaRocca says. “So we started discussing a concept I had sitting on a shelf: organic, dressed, chopped salads and pizzas.”
From the beginning, LaRocca and Kalish designed Crushed Red to be scalable. “We’ve always taken the long view, and to compete you have to execute at a higher level,” LaRocca says. “This includes everything from the decor to the graphics and menu design.” But the menu, he adds, is the true soul. “I’m fiercely protective of the food and the menu; to me, it all starts there,” he notes, adding that he thinks of Crushed Red as a salad company that just happens to do pizza well. Perfecting the signature whole-grain dough for Crushed Red’s pizzas took nine months, with help from former Panera Bread Co. baking operations director Mike Malino. LaRocca also ended up designing his own pizza ovens, which are now manufactured in St. Louis and can bake a pie in 90 seconds. “We’re proud to say that although we’re really a salad company, we do pizzas really well,” he says.
And while Crushed Red’s organic, fresh food is good for you, the restaurant also strives to do good by the planet. It’s part of the Green Dining Alliance, a designation given to restaurants that surpass industry norms for sustainable management and operations. “One of our catchphrases is that we’re saving the planet one kitchen at a time,” LaRocca says, adding that 90 percent of what comes out of the Crushed Red kitchens gets composted.
recipe: wild spring salmon salad
Serves 1 as an entree or 2 as a side
6 oz. grilled wild-caught salmon fillet
1 c. baby spinach, chopped
1 c. romaine lettuce, chopped
1/3 c. fresh orange sections, cut into
1/2-inch pieces
1/3 c. cucumber, diced
1/4 c. red onion, diced
1/4 c. goat cheese crumbles
1/8 c. toasted almonds
2 oz. Sesame-ginger dressing
» Season salmon with salt and pepper. Grill to medium-well.
» Roast almonds on a baking pan in a 350 F oven until golden, 12 to 15 minutes.
» In a large bowl, add spinach, romaine, orange, cucumber, onion, goat cheese, almonds and dress. Toss until all ingredients are incorporated.
» Transfer to a serving bowl; top with salmon.
sesame-ginger dressing
1/2 c. extra-virgin olive oil
1/4 c. balsamic vinegar
2 T. low-sodium soy sauce
2 cloves garlic, chopped
2 T. honey or brown sugar
2 T. peeled and minced ginger
1 t. sesame oil
» Blend ingredients in a blender with 2 T. of water until smooth.
Partners Powell Kalish and Chris LaRocca
Photos: Bill Barrett
