Just Salad names Knicks star Jalen Brunson as equity partner

Just Salad named New York Knicks guard Jalen Brunson an equity partner, making him the chain’s first athlete partnership and Brunson’s first restaurant investment. The company said he will work with leadership and culinary teams and visit restaurants, which puts the deal closer to operations than to a standard endorsement.

That distinction matters because Just Salad is growing fast enough to feel the strain on the line. The chain ended 2025 with about $220 million in domestic sales, up nearly 22% from a year earlier, and first-quarter 2026 traffic rose more than 16%. It expects to open 30 restaurants this year, including drive-thru units, after raising $200 million in early 2025 in a round led by Wellington Management with D1 Capital Partners, Neuberger Berman and Stripes. That financing valued Just Salad at $1 billion, and the chain finished 2025 with 110 locations, nearly double its 2022 count.

For restaurant workers, that kind of expansion usually means a bigger hiring pipeline and more internal chances to move from the prep table or register into shift leadership and management. It also raises the stakes on training, scheduling and store-level standards, especially when a brand is trying to grow without losing the feel that made it stand out in the first place. Brunson said he wanted the relationship to be more than putting his name on something, and Just Salad is clearly treating him as part of the business, not just a face for marketing.

The company has built its identity around sustainability as much as speed. Just Salad is a Certified B Corp and says it operates the world’s largest restaurant reusable program, a system that started in 2006. It also says it was the first U.S. restaurant chain to carbon-label its menu and now offers a Climatarian menu category. The company says its reuse efforts have avoided more than 3 tons of single-use waste.

Just Salad’s growth has already started to show up in new markets and new formats. The chain opened at 1919 Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington, D.C., in April 2026, later added a Foggy Bottom location and planned another unit in Friendship Heights. Its first drive-thru, in Livingston, New Jersey, was serving orders in about three minutes, and the company has said four to six more drive-thrus are slated for 2026. For cooks, hosts, cashiers and managers, the real question is whether the Brunson partnership helps turn that growth into better promotion paths and tighter culture, or just adds more pressure to already demanding restaurants.