Sweet Tomatoes will return to California in 2027, reopening in Fountain Valley in Orange County — seven years after the pandemic shutdown forced all 97 Souplantation and Sweet Tomatoes restaurants into liquidation in a 2020 bankruptcy.

The company announced the California homecoming on Instagram this week. The Fountain Valley site, south of Los Angeles, will be the third location of the revived buffet brand and its first in the state where the concept was born.

What happened to the original chain?

Souplantation opened in San Diego and operated under parent Garden Fresh. When the concept expanded beyond California, its owners at the time concluded the name would not travel, so units outside the state carried the Sweet Tomatoes banner while running the same buffet model.

The COVID shutdown ended both brands. All 97 restaurants closed and were liquidated in the 2020 bankruptcy, wiping out a chain that had operated coast to coast.

Who brought it back?

A company named ST Three LCC acquired the intellectual property rights out of the 2020 bankruptcy and reassembled part of the original corporate team. The revival began in 2024 with a reopening in Tucson, Arizona — the first new life for the brand.

Earlier this year, a second location opened in Fort Myers, Florida, with a somewhat updated design. Fountain Valley will follow in 2027 as the third unit and the first West Coast location since the collapse.

Company officials did not immediately respond to requests for more detail on the California plans.

Will it be called Souplantation?

That question remains open. The company has not said whether the Fountain Valley restaurant will carry the Sweet Tomatoes name or revive Souplantation, the brand most recognized on the West Coast. The original chain used both names for the identical concept, splitting California from the rest of the country, so either outcome would be consistent with the brand's history.

The naming decision carries real weight in the market: Souplantation is the name California customers know, and the social media response to the return suggests the equity in it remains strong. San Diego-area commenters, in particular, expressed a sense of betrayal that the first California location is not landing in the brand's original home market.

Does the buffet segment have room for this?

Technomic data shows the buffet segment shrinking. Sales were already declining for brands such as Old Country Buffet and HomeTown Buffet before the pandemic, and the format was among the hardest hit by COVID-era restrictions on self-serve dining.

The counterargument is price. A fixed-price, all-you-can-eat model is an attractive value proposition at a moment when consumers are struggling to absorb higher costs across dining and groceries. That dynamic has slowed Top 500 chain restaurant sales overall in 2025, as consumers cut back on dining — but value-forward formats have held up better than most.

Sweet Tomatoes' three-unit comeback, spaced across Arizona, Florida and now California, is effectively a test of whether a liquidated buffet brand can be rebuilt unit by unit in a contracting segment, with the fixed-price value pitch as its central bet.

If Fountain Valley lands in 2027 and carries the Souplantation name, the brand will have closed the loop on its 2020 collapse in the state where it started.