Fast Food Goes Organic

The company is not first to the D.C. market with quick, organic food. Last year, three Georgetown University graduates opened a restaurant called Sweetgreen, on M Street in Georgetown. Sweetgreen serves salads that are mostly organic in environmentally friendly surroundings. The packaging is biodegradable. The owners are planning two more stores for the District, including one in Dupont Circle, and they welcomed Organic to Go to the quick organic scene.

"People are realizing that it's more important what they are eating," said Nicolas Jammet, co-owner of Sweetgreen. "Concepts like Organic to Go and us bring it down to the everyday level. I think it's good that people are starting to eat better. There is a lot of room for these kinds of concepts, and we welcome them because it expands overall interest."

Burrito chain Chipotle was perhaps the first big quick-service food outlet to catch on in the mainstream by using natural foods. The company is the country's largest restaurant buyer of naturally raised meats. The sour cream thrown onto burritos is free of synthetic growth hormones. "They are setting the bar very high," Killifer said.

Other chains popping up include Evos, a Tampa company with fast-food outlets in several states offering soy burgers and air-baked fries. Gusto Grilled Organics' flagship restaurant is in midtown Manhattan and serves eat-in, takeout, or delivery -- steak sandwiches, empanadas, pizzas and more.

Clark Wolf, a New York restaurant consultant who worked with restaurants ranging from the Russian Tea Room to hot spots in Loews Hotels, said concepts like Organic to Go "are the new hook, and we'll see what happens."

"If you believe that organic ingredients are wholesome, which I do, and that they have potential to have better flavor, which I do, then there's a good chance if they don't ruin the stuff that it could be better than the stuff out there," Wolf said. "It will entirely depend on whether it's any good."

Brown, the chief executive of Organic to Go, said it is on the hunt for local organic food providers, and it will change offerings at High Noon locations -- as well as the name -- in several months. It will add salad bars, too. Organics to Go is keeping High Noon's employees. And the company intends to expand its locations here, Brown said.

"Our goal is to pioneer this," he said.