The end of the lunch bowl era

By Redd Brown, Dina Katgara, Bloomberg News

Americans are increasingly over the “slop bowl.”

Chipotle, Sweetgreen and Cava — once stars of the restaurant industry — are struggling as diners tire of all those pick-your-own ingredients piled atop rice or greens. Instead, lunchgoers are choosing offerings with more texture, like sandwiches and tacos, that fill them up and often cost less.

Even Steve Ells, the founder of Chipotle and the burrito bowl that rocketed the chain to lunchtime fame, has moved on. At a Manhattan location of his new concept Counter Service, there’s a red neon sign depicting a lunch bowl with a slash through it. It’s a bowl-free zone, reinforced by a website that proclaims “we love sandwiches” and “anything, as long as it can go on bread.”

“We’ve gone back to handhe