Chains like Sweetgreen and Chipotle are finally realizing they need to look beyond the “slop bowl”

Every food trend eventually runs it course, or just recedes to become part of the culinary landscape. That’s arguably what has happened to build‑your‑own salad or grain bowls, the once-hot office lunches that are now often and perhaps unfairly derided as “slop bowls.” That shift in tastes leaves companies like Chipotle Mexican Grill, Sweetgreen and Cava, which built large businesses on the popularity of bowl-based food, scrambling to reinvent their offerings.

Recently, that has led to often softer business at the companies that form the vanguard of that food movement stemming from “bowl fatigue” and high menu prices. This week, Sweetgreen, where business has been slow, said it was introducing wraps in select U.S. markets, touting the food trend you might remember from the 1990s as a “handheld format designed to deliver the portability and satisfaction guests crave.”

“We expect wraps to be a huge moment for our brand,”........

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