ORGANIC DINING OUT
Wednesday, June 4
The options for eating organic are about to grow. Organic to Go, a Seattle company founded in 2004, said Monday that it has purchased locally based High Noon's four cafes, as well as its catering operation, and plans to turn the lunch hot spots into places where office workers can flee their cubicles and devour a meatloaf sandwich made with organic beef.

High Noon was founded by Mark Ordan, who took to the business of offering good food faster after he sold his Fresh Fields grocery chain to Whole Foods in 1996 for $150 million. Ordan, with the backing of Bear Stearns Merchant Banking, later purchased a gourmet grocery chain that ultimately became Balducci's, bringing High Noon into the fold.

Terms of the deal with Organic to Go were not disclosed.

Jason Brown, Organic to Go's founder and chief executive, said the company is on the hunt for local organic food providers, and it will change offerings at High Noon locations, as well as the name, in several months. It will add salad bars, too. Organics to Go is keeping High Noon's employees. And the company intends to expand its locations here, Brown said.

'Our goal is to pioneer this,' he said.

By washbizblog

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