A U.S. Bankruptcy Court has approved 7 Brew's $123 million bid for the leases of at least 60 former Salad and Go drive-thru locations, according to a press release from global law firm Reed Smith, which represented the debtor. The coffee chain will convert the drive-thru sites to 7 Brew units over time.

The transaction is expected to pay Salad and Go's unsecured creditors in full — an outcome Reed Smith called "an exceptionally rare outcome in a Chapter 11 case." The approval comes roughly two months after the salad chain filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy and closed 70 stores.

The sale caps a bidding contest between two drive-thru operators. At the start of the bankruptcy process, Dutch Bros said it had reached a $105 million private sale agreement with Salad and Go, covering the real estate and site assets of up to 65 units. 7 Brew then expressed interest of its own, criticized the private sale structure, and submitted a higher bid while preparing its competing offer.

7 Brew's winning bid came in about $18.5 million above Dutch Bros' original offer, per Reed Smith. Dutch Bros was listed as the backup bidder in the final proceeding.

The approved package covers leases from roughly 36 locations in Arizona, 16 in Texas, three in Nevada and five in Oklahoma.

The final count signals that not every landlord went along with the transfer. 7 Brew's original bid, submitted earlier in the case, was $143 million for 73 sites. The gap between 73 sites and roughly 60 suggests some landlords declined to hand their leases to a coffee operator. Possible reasons: certain locations sat too close to an existing coffee shop, or a caffeine-focused tenant did not fit the landlord's current tenant mix.

For 7 Brew, the deal is a real estate play that accelerates unit growth. The chain surpassed 777 units earlier this year and continues to open new stands rapidly across the country as it works toward a 1,000-store target. As of August, 7 Brew said it had over 800 stands across 38 states.

Buying leased, built drive-thru boxes out of bankruptcy lets the chain add sites faster and likely cheaper than ground-up development, while skipping the entitlement and construction timelines that constrain organic expansion. The conversions will roll out over time rather than all at once, which spreads rebranding and equipment costs across the portfolio.

The outcome also removes a question mark hanging over the Salad and Go footprint since the filing. Creditors recover in full, landlords in four states get a committed replacement tenant, and Dutch Bros walks away as backup bidder — a position that carries no obligation but preserved its option had the 7 Brew deal collapsed.

With more than 60 additional sites feeding its development pipeline, 7 Brew now has a clearer path from 800-plus stands toward its 1,000-unit milestone.