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Top 100: Restaurants - Bean Sprouts

Bean Sprouts is number 31 on our list of the Top 100: Movers & Shakers.

February 12, 2015

Bean Sprouts is number 31 on our list of the Top 100: Movers & Shakers.

While many fast casual chains are offering more healthy kid options these days, Seattle- based Bean Sprouts has taken it to another level, focusing its menu and entire culture on kids and babies, said founders Shannon Payette Seip and Kelly Parthen. “We are filling a niche few others are right now by looking at the restaurant experience through the eyes of kids,” Payette Seip said. “We have a wholesome and whimsical menu that focuses on playful presentation and gets kids moving and involved in the café with silly activities.” A customer favorite, for example, is the “Bean There, Ate That” gong that kids bang when they try new foods. “It’s a dining experience like few others for kids today in the fast casual industry; we designed it from what we as moms were hoping to find for our kids when dining out — but never could,” Payette Seip said. 

The chain, which serves sandwiches shaped like spiders and flowers, salads and pizzas served on waffles called Wazzles, has three locations located in kid-friendly or family destinations, including the Seattle Center, campus of the Space Needle; the Bay Area Discovery Museum in the San Francisco Bay Area and Chabot Space & Science Center also in the San Francisco Bay Area. “We plan to open an additional 75 company- owned cafés by 2018, primarily at family destinations similar to the places we are in now,” Payette Seip said.