Who We Are

At Roots, taste comes first. We believe people should feel good about what they’re eating – eating naturally and eating great should be one and the same.

Our Mission

We strive to empower people through radical accessibility to natural food.

Empowered People

Roots Natural Kitchen is an optimistic approach to eating – one that energizes our customers and engages our employees.

When harnessed, natural food can fuel any lifestyle. Roots is for everyone, whether you’re watching a Netflix marathon or running a real one.

Radical Accessibility

From new store locations to delivery and pick-up options, from our everyday Kids-Eat-Free program to our custom mobile app, we make it simple to eat Roots.

We believe it should be easy to enjoy natural food – with flavors fit for everyone.

Natural Food

Made with intention, natural food can be delicious and filling. And with this as our inspiration, we set out to make kale mainstream.

We want to make a natural lifestyle easy and supportable, so the benefits of eating fresh, natural foods can be enjoyed by everyone, every day.

Our Food

Eat good food.
Eat mostly stuff that grows.

Food’s a powerful tool. And we’ve found that when we get back to basics with what we eat, food is even more powerful. We sleep better, move better, feel better.

Eat natural food.
Feel better.

Deep sleep

Fast recovery

High energy

Our bodies use food as fuel to perform hundreds of everyday functions. Food powers us for soccer practice, keeps us steady in after-work traffic, and leads to deeper, more restful sleep. In our experience, the closer we stay to the food we find in nature, the better we feel.

Our Timeline

The first Roots was founded in Charlottesville, Virginia in 2015. It started with an idea: tasty, natural food in a fast-casual setting.

2015 Roots Opens in Charlottesville

When the salads all started. Founded by University of Virginia grads in 2015, our flagship store introduced the Charlottesville community to the Roots bowl, for the first time.

2016 Roots Opens in Delaware

We headed north to Newark, DE, for store #2, opening on the campus of University of Delaware in 2016. Roots, meet UDEL’s Blue Hens. Blue Hens, meet Roots.

2018 Roots Goes Mobile

After four stores, we rolled out the mobile ordering app, to make getting bowls even easier. With lines wrapped around our Charlottesville off-premise location on the day of the rollout, and more Jefe orders than you can count, ask us about the Great App Fiasco of 2018.

2018 Roots Launches Catering

After the rollout of our mobile ordering app, we introduced two new Roots products to serve groups fast and easy. Catering made big orders a breeze.

2018 Roots Opens in Richmond

Following the first half of the year’s catering and app launches, Roots rounded out a busy 2018, with store #3 opening in downtown Richmond, VA, next to the VCU campus.

2019 Roots Opens in Pittsburgh

Roots trekked northwest to open our doors to UPitt students, hospital workers, and community members of Pittsburgh, PA.

2019 Roots Opens in State College

Roots headed to the Happy Valley for store #5, gearing up for Nittany Football weekends (and out-the-door lines) in State College, PA.

2020 Roots Expands in Charlottesville

We officially split our off-premise location in Charlottesville to house all app and catering orders, expanding our Charlottesville footprint and counting off store #6.

2020 Roots Opens in Blacksburg

We took to southwest VA in the fall of 2020, serving our signature salads to the good people of Blacksburg. For our opening, Hokie students and locals showed up and showed out.

2021 Roots Expands in Pittsburgh

Roots went back to the Steel City, for another popular Pittsburgh Roots. We opened store #8 in Bloomfield-Shadyside.

2021 Roots Expands in Richmond

RVA made a comeback – we opened another Roots close to the University of Richmond, serving the west-end community of Richmond, VA.

2021 Roots Opens in Columbus

Go big or go Columbus. At the end of 2021, Roots became proud Buckeye fans, slinging bowls for students and the surrounding downtown community.

2021 Roots Opens in Chapel Hill

Roots opened in Chapel Hill, NC at the University of North Carolina for store #10. Spanning college, urban, and suburban markets in four states, we were on our way to getting kale on the forks of the people, one Roots at a time.

2022 Roots Opens in Fairfax

We followed our UVA, VCU, and VT grads to Fairfax, VA for an epic Roots reunion, where we launched our biggest opening day yet!

2023 Roots Opens in College Park

Lucky #13. Roots took on the Terrapins at the University of Maryland. We opened in College Park, MD, just in time to celebrate the spring grads of ’23.