Tuesday, July 15, 2008

Branch of faux low-fat chain coming to Dallas-Fort Worth Airport

By Pegasus News wire

UFood Grill will open a franchise at the Dallas/Ft. Worth International Airport in October. UFood Grill takes a back-to-basics approach to healthy cooking, where everything served is rooted in quality-from choice, hormone-free and antibiotic-free meats to natural and organic ingredients, fresh produce, whole grains, and light cheeses and dressings.

The result of a three-year development program from a team of restaurant veterans, UFood Grill is led by Chairman and CEO George Naddaff , best known as the founder of Boston Market, and President and COO Charlie Cocotas, formerly the President of Boston Chicken and CEO of TCBY. In addition, UFood Grill's major shareholder, heavy weight champion George Foreman, serves as the company spokesman to assist in overall company awareness.

Launched in 1999 as an independent place called LoFat/NoFat, it was taken over in 2004 by franchise "guru" George Naddaff, who renamed it KnowFat! Lifestyle Grille, then renamed it UFood Grill and redesigned the customer experience. UFood Grill remains committed to providing delicious, better-for-you food, but delivered in a more mainstream way.

There are currently three UFood Grill units in the United States: Boston's Logan International Airport; Roseville, Calif.; and Naples, Fla. The company plans to convert five KnowFat! Lifestyle Grills located in Boston to UFood Grills this summer. Franchise units will open in Chicago, Dallas-Ft. Worth International Airport, California, Florida, Utah, Montana, Idaho and Texas.

UFood's menu categories include: Fired-Up Burgers(TM), signature sandwiches, UBowls(TM), wraps, grilled entrees, specialty salads, Smuuthies(TM), UBerry(TM) tart-style frozen yogurt. Every dish is baked, grilled, or steamed. Nothing in the restaurant is fried, ever. And, because healthy means different things to different people (low fat, low carb, gluten free, natural, or organic), guests are encouraged to customize their meals to their tastes.

I recently saw this at the airport in Boston and it looked awful.

Source: UFood Grill; posted by T.G.

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• Food and Drink > Dining / Restaurants

Comments

James Scott Verified

Unless it just completely sux, it would be nice to see this kind of option at the airport, where you're pretty much captive to the current garbage they offer (McCrap, Pretzels, Cinnamon buns, etc). But yeah, if it looked pretty bad in person, it probably is pretty bad. I'm guessing the "Tofusion" bowl won't be offered in Big-D, though. I'll probably have to roll through LAX for that one.

2 months, 3 weeks ago ( Link to this comment | Suggest removal )

Pavel Lishin Verified

That's pretty cool - but how often are you stuck at the DFW airport and hungry? If I'm flying out, I eat beforehand so I don't have to resort to cannibalism once the peanuts run out; if I'm arriving, I just want to get out of the airport and meet the people picking me up.

The only time I'm hungry at the airport is when I come to pick someone up and the plane is late - and there's no going through the gates for me. :(

2 months, 3 weeks ago ( Link to this comment | Suggest removal )

Jeremy Dunck Staff

Pavel, You have clearly never flown Northwest. :)

2 months, 3 weeks ago ( Link to this comment | Suggest removal )

Teresa Gubbins Staff

james scott, i'm with you 100%, i think the food options at our airport suck and almost anything would be better than TGIFriday's. but still: this place had crappy-looking deli meat, wilted lettuce, unappealing bread, etc.

i rarely eat at an airport but my plane was delayed. i was grateful to get a fantastic sandwich in boston at a place called Cosi's. there's a branch in San Antonio; maybe they'll eventually make it to DFW

2 months, 3 weeks ago ( Link to this comment | Suggest removal )

The Law Reviewers Verified

Cosi rocks. The LR's used to frequent Cosis in The City back in the day. As long as its been around NY & New England, it's surprising it hasn't made its way down here yet, seeing as how we're just now suffering through the seven-year-old, fading fancy salad craze ("It's a salad bar where I order someone to put it together for me! Wow!").

2 months, 3 weeks ago ( Link to this comment | Suggest removal )

Joel Woiton Verified

I was just in Logan airport and sampled some of UFood's offerings. It definitely looked better than the mc-food that is in most of DFW.

2 months, 3 weeks ago ( Link to this comment | Suggest removal )