Bean Sprouts

What Bean Sprouts does

Bean Sprouts is a US-based restaurant company that operates healthy food cafés embedded inside family destinations such as children's museums, science centers, zoos, and theme parks. Founded in 2007 by Kelly "Pea Brain" Parthen and Shannon "Peacasso" Seip, the company runs 16+ café locations across 10+ states, serving more than 15 million annual visitors with a menu designed to be playful for children and nutritionally credible for adults. The product offering accommodates a broad range of dietary restrictions—vegetarian, vegan, gluten-free, dairy-free, nut-free, egg-free, and soy-free—and centers on the signature Imaginibbles kids menu, which uses lower counter heights and creative dish names to let children self-select healthy options. The company has also extended the brand into a dessert sub-brand (The Sweet Spot), catering services across all café locations, and the Bean Appétit cookbook sold via Amazon, with a stated social-impact component donating meals for each book sold.

The business operates on multiple revenue streams: point-of-sale food and beverage at the cafés, transaction-based catering revenue, licensing/royalty fees from family destinations that adopt the Bean Sprouts concept, and one-time cookbook sales. The licensing model is the primary scaling mechanism: Bean Sprouts targets family destinations with at least 200,000 annual visitors and licenses its concept, while venues typically operate the cafés on-site under that license. This is reflected in a central organization of 11–50 employees supporting a footprint of 16+ partner-operated venues. The company is privately held, has not disclosed external funding, and reports ownership and leadership concentrated with the two co-founders, who serve as co-CEOs. There is no proprietary technology platform; the underlying 'technology' is operational know-how in allergen-safe food preparation, venue-specific menu design, and a content library (cookbook and recipes) that supports brand extension. The company has accumulated third-party validation through mainstream media coverage (Good Morning America, Today Show, Forbes) and industry recognition including Inc. Magazine Top 100 Female Founders, Fast Casual Top 100 Movers & Shakers, and AllerTrain Best Food Allergy Innovation Award.

Name

Bean Sprouts

Website

https://beansprouts.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

2007

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

51–100 employees

Short description

Bean Sprouts operates 16+ healthy food cafés embedded inside US family destinations (children's museums, science centers, zoos), serving over 15 million annual visitors with allergy-conscious, kid-friendly menus under a licensed concept model, complemented by catering, a dessert sub-brand, and a published cookbook.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Healthy Kids Café / Family-Destination Foodservice

NAICS

Cafeterias, Grill Buffets, and Buffets (722514), Caterers (722320)

SIC

Retail-Eating & Drinking Places (5810)

akta.pro primary industry

Mobile / On-Site Catering (Food Trucks for Events, Pop-Ups) (THAFAIAJ)

akta.pro secondary industry

Farm-to-Table & Agritourism Dining Experiences (Farm Visits, Harvest Meals) (THAJAGAK)

Keywords

• Family-friendly restaurants
• Healthy kids cafe
• Cafe licensing franchise
• Allergen-friendly dining
• Event catering services

Headquarters

HQ city

Santa Ana

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices16 records

Markets served

GTM type

B2B and B2C

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Supply Chain, Marketing or Sales, Infrastructure

Revenue model

1. Café Food & Beverage Sales: Point-of-sale revenue from café operations inside family destinations, serving kids and adults with healthy menu options including vegetarian, vegan, gluten-free, dairy-free, nut-free, egg-free, and soy-free options.
2. Catering Services: Catering for events including birthday parties, board meetings, field trips, and camps. Available across all Bean Sprouts café locations.
3. Cookbook Sales: Sale of Bean Sprouts Kitchen cookbook published by Quarto Group, featuring 60 recipes. With each book purchase, Bean Sprouts donates enough for 5 meals for kids in need.
4. Licensing & Franchise Fees: Licensing arrangements with family destinations (museums, science centers, zoos, theme parks) that want to offer Bean Sprouts' hip and healthy food concept to their visitors.

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels4 records

Marketing channels5 records

Core offering

Bean Sprouts runs a multi-location chain of healthy, family-friendly cafés embedded inside children's museums, science centers, zoos, and theme parks across the United States. Its core offering is point-of-sale foodservice featuring playful, nutritious menus (including the Imaginibbles kids' menu) with broad allergen accommodation (vegetarian, vegan, gluten-free, dairy-free, nut-free, egg-free, soy-free). The company extends this café concept through event catering, a branded cookbook (Bean Sprouts Kitchen / Bean Appétit), and a licensing program for family destinations with at least 200,000 annual visitors.

Product overview

Bean Sprouts operates as a multi-location café chain serving family destinations across the United States. The core offering consists of Bean Sprouts Café (healthy kids' café with dietary accommodations) complemented by The Sweet Spot (dessert concept) and Bean Sprouts Kitchen (cookbook). The company also provides catering services and operates a signature Imaginibbles kids menu. All concepts focus on making healthy eating fun and accessible for children.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• The Sweet Spot: A sub-brand offering tasty treats and all-natural ingredients, now open in select locations.
• Imaginibbles
• Bean Appétit

Products and services

• Bean Sprouts Café Bean Sprouts' flagship healthy café concept operating inside family destinations (children's museums, science centers, zoos, theme parks), serving playful, nutritious meals for children and adults with accommodations for vegetarian, vegan, gluten-free, dairy-free, nut-free, egg-free, and soy-free diets.
• The Sweet Spot Dessert and treats sub-brand under Bean Sprouts featuring tasty treats and all-natural ingredients, currently available at select locations including the McWane Science Center in Birmingham, AL.
• Bean Sprouts Catering
• Bean Sprouts Kitchen Cookbook (Bean Appétit) Cookbook featuring 60 creative, wholesome recipes designed to make healthy eating fun for picky and adventurous eaters; with each book purchased, Bean Sprouts donates enough for 5 meals for kids in need.

Quantifiable outcome

• 1 in 13 children have food allergies, and Bean Sprouts accommodates most allergies
• +1 more outcomes

Named customers15 records

Segments2 records

Ideal customer profiles2 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature2 records

Partnerships

One partnership is on record.

• Family Destinations (Museums, Science Centers, Zoos)coreOEM/ Whitelabel/ Licensing PartnerBean Sprouts licenses its café concept to family destinations including museums, science centers, and zoos. Partners include venues such as Bay Area Discovery Museum, Children's Museum of Pittsburgh, Discovery Cube, DuPage Children's Museum, and others. The company requires partners to have at least 200,000 annual visitors.

Scale indicators3 records

Recent moves7 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Broad incumbents

• Jamba Juice: Health-focused smoothie and bowl chain that frequently operates kiosks and small-format stores inside malls, airports, and family destinations - analogous to Bean Sprouts' embedded-in-venues model with a health-forward menu focus.
• Pret a Manger: Healthy café chain offering made-to-order salads, sandwiches, and bowls - comparable to Bean Sprouts on healthy café positioning and on venue/mall and office-tower locations, though serving a broader all-day adult customer base.
• Sodexo: International foodservice and facilities management company that operates cafés and restaurants at museums, universities, and corporate venues - a broad incumbent in the venue-foodservice space that competes for the same partner-venue contracts Bean Sprouts targets.
• Sweetgreen: Public healthy fast-casual restaurant chain built on wellness-forward menus and a digitally-savvy brand - comparable to Bean Sprouts on health positioning and brand-led differentiation, though operating standalone stores rather than embedded partner venues.
• Aramark: Global foodservice and facilities operator that runs restaurants and cafés inside museums, zoos, aquariums, and cultural attractions - directly comparable venue-embedded foodservice model to Bean Sprouts, though at vastly larger scale and without a healthy/kids specialty focus.
• Cava: Fast-growing Mediterranean fast-casual chain with a healthy and customizable menu - comparable to Bean Sprouts on healthy positioning and franchise-able concept, though operates standalone locations rather than embedded partner venues.

Direct peers

• True Food Kitchen: Health-forward restaurant chain with allergy-conscious menus and a focus on wellness-driven dining - highly comparable to Bean Sprouts' healthy positioning and differentiated nutritional/allergen story, though operating as standalone storefronts rather than embedded venues.
• Rainforest Cafe: Themed restaurant chain operating inside tourist destinations, malls, and family entertainment centers - a direct destination-embedded dining peer to Bean Sprouts with shared family-traffic customer base, though differentiated by themed entertainment rather than healthy positioning.
• Hard Rock Cafe: Iconic destination-embedded themed restaurant chain located at tourist attractions, hotels, and entertainment districts - shares Bean Sprouts' model of locating inside high-traffic family destinations and monetizing through licensing/royalty arrangements.
• Restaurant Associates: Specialist venue restaurant operator (a Compass Group company) that runs dining programs inside cultural institutions including museums and galleries - the closest embedded-venue dining operator comparable to Bean Sprouts' model.

Market position

Strengths4 records

Weaknesses4 records

Competitive moat3 records

Key risks5 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• Facebookfacebook.com/BeanSproutsCafe

Compliance5 records

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles2 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Bean Sprouts