St. Pete commuters can swap out greasy burgers from fast food joints for freshly-made salads at Greenlane, a new drive-thru restaurant opening on 4th Street. 

Greenlane, a health-conscious-driven restaurant expanding into several Tampa Bay-area submarkets, is getting ready to turn dirt at 8001 4th Street North for its third location.

The 1,200-square-foot bright green building will have a single drive-thru lane and pickup window where customers can quickly order sweet and spicy salads or build their own. 

"We have been looking at the St. Pete market for nearly two years and have high expectations for the 4th Street location with the surrounding neighborhood population and businesses," said founder Christopher Burch in a conversation with St. Pete Rising.

Burch, the CEO of Burch Creative Capital, has invested in diverse industries for nearly 30 years, but Greenlane is his first food venture that debuted last year at 4495 West Gandy Boulevard in Tampa. 

The most ordered item is the Ginger Sesame Crunch, a salad with an edamame base, shredded rainbow carrots, oranges, red cabbage, honey cashews, and cilantro sesame ginger dressing.

Golden Greek is another popular dish. Customers can pick either chicken or tofu as their protein for the salad, which comes with grape tomatoes, cucumbers, feta, Kalamata olives, red onion, and pepperocini on a bed of romaine lettuce dressed with red wine vinaigrette. 

The salad prices start at $7.99. All the dressings are made in-house, including the maple balsamic vinaigrette and green goddess.

"We want to provide customers with access to a fresh filling and affordable option," said Erica Spector Wishnow, a leading adviser for Greenlane.

Greenlane sources kale and arugula from LeRoots Urban Farm, the City of Tampa's first privately held premium indoor urban farm. 

Burch said the team is engaging with St. Pete urban farming company Brick Street Farms to locally procure more ingredients. 

The St. Pete location is expected to open in late April or early May. It will also offer Greenlane's recently launched catering menu.  

"With our model, we can run our peak periods with five or six people," said Burch. Greenlane will hire roughly 20 employees.

"We can maintain construction costs and our low prices by limiting the overhead and not having a dining room." 

Burch is investing $1.6 million for the St. Pete restaurant. A heavy percentage of the costs is going towards the unique design of the building. 

Greenlane is working with Tarpon Springs-based Global Sign & Awning, a design firm specializing in drive-thru canopies and awnings; Tampa-based general contractor Ash Enterprises; and Palm Harbor-based Oliveri Architects.

Greenlane’s second location, at 2055 North Dale Mabry in Tampa, is scheduled to open within the next three months.

The team said they may open a future restaurant in west St. Pete's Tyrone corridor. 

Meanwhile, another salad-focused fast-casual concept, Sweetgreen, which serves made-to-order salads, will open this year at 1114 Central Avenue in downtown St. Pete's EDGE District. 

Follow Greenlane’s Facebook page for future store openings and announcements.