Souplantation/Sweet Tomatoes, owned by Garden Fresh Restaurant Corp., chose me and 13 other people to be members of their Kitchen Cabinet. That meant a trip to San Diego to their headquarters and a day filled with food, fun and new friends. We were able to share our thoughts about their restaurants, the food, the service, the promotions and upcoming plans for smaller restaurants.

Here’s a quick breakdown of my trip:

I spent the day traveling on Monday. At the hotel I was given the choice of eating at Souplantation or at the hotel restaurant. As much I wanted to try a Souplantation, I was exhausted so I gave in and chose the hotel. I also had a free drink coupon for happy hour, but I slept through that.

The next morning, the fun began! We were on our way to Garden Fresh, all strangers in anticipation of what was to come.  We were met by smiling faces and welcomed into the office, where we learned the test kitchen is located. No wonder everyone is so happy there! After a tour of the office, we introduced ourselves and then played Jenga with questions to get to know each other better. It was a fun ice-breaker game.

The rest of the day was filled with food tastings and there was plenty of that. We also met staff, including the CEO, Michael Mack. I learned that many of the staff are long timers and it’s quite obvious why. Many of them said that working there was like working with family. The atmosphere supported that. I have a feeling that the test kitchen has something to do with it too

There was plenty of time to voice our opinions on everything from issues we had in our local restaurants to upcoming new recipes. Then we were shown the new restaurant prototype and given a chance to try it out. We went through the line and sampled the food as well. I won’t give away many details, but it’s an exciting new experience with the usual wholesome fresh food you would expect from Souplantion/Sweet Tomatoes, but some added surprises.

Before we left, we had our own happy hour, with lovely desserts and for those that chose to imbibe, wine and beer. It was a casual time, where we chatted and made plans to connect online. Then back to the hotel with full bellies and dreams of delicious food.

The last day was another day of traveling. I had my lovely swag bag and lots of meal passes. I’m hoping that my request for a Sweet Tomatoes closer to home is approved so I can go more often.

Thanks to Tracy, Joan, Jill, Adrienne and Ken for making the Souplantation/Sweet Tomatoes Kitchen Cabinet so amazing!

Although this trip  was provided by Garden Fresh Restaurant Corp. I was not asked to write about my experience or share the information.

This entry was posted on Sunday, March 28th, 2010 at 3:07 pm and is filed under Food, events, travel. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.