7 Brew Outbids Dutch Bros With $143M Play for Salad and Go's Real Estate

7 Brew has emerged as the winning bidder for 73 former Salad and Go drive-thru locations, offering more than $143 million at a bankruptcy auction held September 1-2 — topping Dutch Bros, which had earlier locked in an exclusive deal for up to 65 of the sites at $105 million.

The bid breaks down to roughly $125 million for 49 prime sites (about $2.5 million each) and $18 million for 24 more at $750,000 apiece. The locations span Arizona, Nevada, Oklahoma and Texas, and represent about half of the 140-unit lease portfolio Salad and Go left behind when it filed Chapter 11 in early August and shuttered its remaining stores.

For 7 Brew, the deal is a shortcut to scale. The drive-thru coffee chain opened its 777th location in June, plans more than 400 franchised openings this year, and expects to pass 1,000 units in 2026. Absorbing the Salad and Go fleet would put it nearly even with rival Dutch Bros' roughly 1,200 locations — while proving once again that a failed chain's best asset is often its real estate. Small-format drive-thru pads in high-growth Sun Belt markets don't stay empty for long.