A look at grain salads. Plus: National Beer Day, a spring drink menu, and more.

Chop’t will add a ninth shop to the city at the Market Square on Pennsylvania Avenue NW, while California-based vegan eatery Native Foods and Connecticut-based Plan B Burger Bar will open their first.

You know those people who take the entire week off before Christmas? Yeah, we hate them too. But you know what those people miss out on? Free stuff, like lunches from Chop’t. Take that, vacationeers!

Clearly we’re starting to run out of hyperbolic words to describe these giveaways that seem to happen every other week, so today, we’ll just give you the details: Chop’t is doing a salad giveaway at their new 19th and L St. location (1105 1/2 19th Street NW) from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. It’s the same kind of promotion the company always does when it opens a new store, and if you’ve been to previous…

We challenged companies for more free stuff. And then they come back with this. Free salad and free salad sandwiches. It’s healthier, but you can’t help but be just a teensy bit disappointed. Where are our free slabs of bacon? Or our free pints of ice cream? Or free beers? They kept upping the ante, and now the drop. Does this signal the end of summer? Then again who are we to decry free food?…