Salt Partners | Investing In People, Invested In Food

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Salt Partners is a restaurant focused operating and holding company. Since 2014, Salt has been co-founder and operator of 8 significant restaurant companies, participated in over 30 openings, and invested in 15 companies in the food and beverage industry.

High-Proof is behind some of SF's best bars, including two of our early projects — Horsefeather and Last Rites.

Sanzo is the first asian inspired sparkling water brand, sold in stores across the country.

Humphry Slocombe is a pioneer in artisan ice cream and operates nine Bay Area scoop shops.

From restaurants and bars to CPG brands and industry-defining tech, Salt is an essential ingredient in the future of food.

Brick & Mortar Portfolio

We've been involved with the opening and oversight of 30 restaurants and bars. From Michelin-Stars to casual concepts to cocktail bars, we invest in talented people and develop lasting companies.
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Our legacy portfolio includes LocoL, a company co-developed with chef Roy Choi and Daniel Patterson bringing scratch-made fast food to food deserts. Other legacy portfolio includes Atelier Crenn, Bacon Bacon, Bar Crenn, Les Clos, Maum, and Petit Crenn,

Interested in working with us? Get in touch.

Saison

From 1 pop up to 3 Michelin Star, Salt was there from day 1

Humphry Slocombe Ice Cream

Since 2009, Humphry Slocombe has brought chef-driven ice cream to the Bay Area . Food Network named Humphry Slocombe as one of the 5 best ice cream in the country. 9 locations throughout the Bay Area + all the grocery stores/third party apps/Goldbelly & Amazon!

B-Side

Food & Drinks at the iconic SFJAZZ concert venue in Hayes Valley - the largest jazz centric performance space on the West Coast

Lazy Susan

Chinese take-out for today. Recognized by NYTimes, Wall Street Journal, and industry as a “Fast Casual Concept to Watch”. Delivery throughout SF with outposts in San Ramon and San Carlos.

Horsefeather

A neighborhood cocktail gathering place with an adeptly designed interior loosely inspired by the American arts & crafts period.

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Last Rites

Imagine being marooned in a savage, tropical rainforest; you’ve crash landed at Last Rites, a Polynesian Noir adventure, offering over 150 rums and signature twists on tropical cocktails

Hi-Lo Taco

Hi-Lo Taco Co. serves American tacos using handmade flour tortillas and is pioneering a technology driven experience that offers the convenience of fast casual with the order-at the-table and bar-driven model of full service dining.

Pecking House

Launched during the pandemic and shot to fame with a 10,000 people+ wait list, chef Eric Huang combined his fine dining chops from places like Eleven Madison Park and his family’s roots in Chinese restaurants to create the craveable Pecking House - NYTimes named its chile fried chicken one of the Top 10 New York dishes in 2021.

Bacon Bacon

One guess on what Bacon Bacon serves? Yes, bacon with everything. SF Bay Area OG Food truck, cafe, with an outpost in SFO.

Sunday Bakeshop and Neighbor Bakehouse

Recognized by Bon Appetit as having one of the 20 best croissants in the country, Neighbor and Sunday are brands of our bakery group that over delivers on butter and flour

Foodtech & CPG Investments

In parallel to creating great F&B companies, we leverage our insights in the industry to selectively invest in great teams creating wonderful technology and CPG companies. In return, we provide our investee companies our expertise in F&B, connection to customers, and knowledge for product development. At the intersection of food and tech, you'll find Salt Partners.

Want to join the list? Get in touch

Bikky

Restaurants are terrible at knowing their customers - Bikky is helping brands like Dave’s Hot Chicken to be better

Entree

Co-founders (2x exit software CEO + product lead from Netflix) tackles a better food delivery experience

Expo

Restaurant performance management, giving data that managers will actually use

Impact Food

The only plant based seafood that we tasted and would pay for (not in 5 years, but today!)

Nectar

The first Asian-inspired hard seltzer creating the next generation of Asian-American media and flavor

PlateIQ

Invoice and A/P management for Restaurants (exit FTV Capital)

Ritual/Meitre

Realizing the musician-going-on-tour model for world renown chefs.

Sanzo

From 0 to 10,000 stores in less than 5 years, Sanzo created and owned the “asian inspired” sparkling water segment

Servy

Seamless feedback loop for customers and food brands (exit: Resy/AMEX)

Sufferfest Beer

An incredible and passionate CEO + award winning beer (that happens to be gluten-removed) + fervent community = delicious success (exit: Sierra Nevada)

Territory Foods/Mealogic

The country’s only distributed fresh food production and distribution platform geared towards healthy eating, enabling brands to quickly establish its own food revenue stream

Workstream

HR and Hiring software for the deskless workforce with customers from McDonald’s to Fedex to Marriott

Salt Insights & Updates

Food For Thought with Hanson Li

Recently, I moderated a panel at the Food on Demand Conference called Alternative Delivery Solutions. With the rise and market dominance of the Big 3 – Doordash, UberEats, Grubhub (and their related acquired competitors) – there’s a strong thirst to find an alternative. The panelists were restaurant operators who all had started and runs a delivery company.

The Bad Week

2 graffiti tags, 2 instances of an extortion threat, and 1 break-in - All in 5 days!

American as a regional Chinese cuisine

With 150+ year of history in the US, Chinese food that has evolved and established itself should be lauded as much of an regional cuisine as any other 'authentic' regions in China itself.