WHO WE ARE

It's just another salad spot…right? Well yeah, but not really, actually. Sweet Leaf is a community café that has all types of options, breakfast, sandwiches, warm grain bowls, shakes, smoothies, baked goods and more...but you can check out our menu. What truly defines us is our honest food, made with real ingredients, from our local farmers and partners.

In 2009, cofounders Arita and Andre Matini, local natives of Mclean, opened up Sweet Leaf just a couple miles away from their high school. At the time the idea was to open a spot that had a ton of options were everything was fresh and fast. It would offer made-to-order sandwiches, salads, breakfast, froyo, smoothies, milk shakes and more. Since neither one of them were chefs they might as well let everyone build what they wanted, salads sandwiches, smoothies, froyo. Seemed like a pretty simple idea back then, but that single idea gave them the chance to work with their family every day for over ten years, partner with chefs, farms, local business, help thousands of team members make ends meet for their families, serve a couple million lunches and the offered them the chance to impact their community

OUR MISSION

Providing communities with honest food made with real ingredients and a touch of love.

Crafting and promoting great-tasting, healthy, organic food.

Growing our business based on our family values-- integrity, honesty and dependability.

Being a place where people can meet, eat and always find a warm welcoming seat.

Core Values

We are a community cafe that combines simple preparations with global tastes.  Our passion for freshness drives everything we do.  Serious about who we source from and seriously serious about quality-- Sweet Leaf uses local growers, farmers, ranchers and producers whenever possible.

VALUE 1

We push ourselves every day to find new ways to better serve the interests of our community, our partners, and our planet.

VALUE 2

We strive to create a community gathering place where friends, families, and coworkers can come together over a healthy and hearty meal.

VALUE 3

We don’t add any artificial flavors or fillers. We know that nothing is better than the real thing. We serve food from farms, not factories.

As a family owned local cafe, we source
from local farms whenever possible.
Stop by and taste the season's freshest
flavors!

#1

FAMILY OWNED

ABOUT US

Sweet Leaf is a family-owned community cafe that strives to serve the very best healthy and hearty dishes. Honest food made with real ingredients, sourced from local farms whenever possible. We also believe in having a good time while doing what we love and we do love what we do.

WORK WITH US? Join the Team

Staying true to our roots--that's been our goal since 2009. We opened our first location as if it was a "weekend project," restoring, cleaning, and painting an old ice cream shop. Wanting to preserve the quaint charm of a neighborhood relic, we traveled to local antique shops and farms, searching for unique items to decorate our interior. Not only does our food come from local farms, so does a lot of our interior, from the wood we use for our tables and counters, to the signs we hang.

CAFE INTERIOR

Staying true to our roots--that's been our goal since 2009. We opened our first location as if it was a "weekend project," restoring, cleaning, and painting an old ice cream shop. Wanting to preserve the quaint charm of a neighborhood relic, we traveled to local antique shops and farms, searching for unique items to decorate our interior. Not only does our food come from local farms, so does a lot of our interior, from the wood we use for our tables and counters, to the signs we hang.

CAFE INTERIOR

Staying true to our roots--that's been our goal since 2009. We opened our first location as if it was a "weekend project," restoring, cleaning, and painting an old ice cream shop. Wanting to preserve the quaint charm of a neighborhood relic, we traveled to local antique shops and farms, searching for unique items to decorate our interior. Not only does our food come from local farms, so does a lot of our interior, from the wood we use for our tables and counters, to the signs we hang.

CAFE INTERIOR

Staying true to our roots--that's been our goal since 2009. We opened our first location as if it was a "weekend project," restoring, cleaning, and painting an old ice cream shop. Wanting to preserve the quaint charm of a neighborhood relic, we traveled to local antique shops and farms, searching for unique items to decorate our interior. Not only does our food come from local farms, so does a lot of our interior, from the wood we use for our tables and counters, to the signs we hang.

CAFE INTERIOR

Our Partners

We care about where our ingredients come from.  Since our family opened a farmers market down the street from our home in 1991, Andre and Arita spent most Saturdays bagging vegetables for neighbors who stopped by to get some local tomatoes, apples or whatever was in season.  We know the importance of supporting local, sustainably run farms. We do our part to help protect your health and the health of our communities, while helping support the local economy.  See how we're making choices with farmers, animals, and our community in mind.

Richardson Farms

Richardson is a fifth-generation family farm located in White Marsh, Maryland. They are committed to providing you with the best tasting and freshest locally grown produce available.

JAYLEAF

Jayleaf – the next generation of organic farmers, wholly committed to their products and our planets. They their calling is the cultivation of delicious, premium super greens (and reds, yellows, and purples), available as individual varieties and premium lettuce mixes, custom-tailored to Sweet Leaf's customers. That means field-picked today, delivered fresh tonight. It also means using the freshest technologies throughout the process.

Mountain View Farm

All Farmstead cheeses are made using raw milk from their herd.  Then they add cultures, rennet, sea salt, and various herbs and spices, and allow the cheese to age for a minimum of 60 days.