Former top college athlete opening new Triangle locations of healthy fast-casual restaurant
Unlike Icarus, whose DIY wings depended on and were ultimately doomed by his own flapping, flying for Michelle Woodward was an act of faith in others.
For most of her early life as a gymnast and competitive cheerleader, soaring, flipping and twisting in the air meant being launched by her ankles skyward to be snagged in a web of arms as gravity returned her back to earth. In glimpses, Woodward lived everyone’s wished-for superpower.
“There’s nothing that really mimics flying through the air,” Woodward said.
Now with her feet on the ground, the former collegiate cheerleader and Triangle restaurateur is taking her fast-casual healthy eating brand Diced to new heights with a pair of prominent openings.
In October, Diced debuted its most high profile location yet, launching in downtown Raleigh in the land of the power lunch, at 121 Fayetteville St., across the street from the 30-story Wells Fargo building and steps away from the North Carolina statehouse.
Since its launch in 2015, Diced has mostly fed the healthy cravings of suburban diners with two locations in Cary and another along Wade Avenue outside of downtown Raleigh. Now in downtown proper, Diced turned the former Tasty 8s gourmet hot dog space into a healthy eating option.
In the downtown lunch space, Woodward said she saw few healthy, satisfying choices amid the landscape of giant pizza slices and sandwiches.
“We’re gearing towards more of the busy people that have, like, 30 minutes to grab lunch, and they’re trying to be healthy, and it’s really not even out there,” Woodward said. “I think it’s always been part of our mission to get the busy office worker.”
Diced coming to Holly Springs
Next year, as Diced marks a decade in business, it will open its latest location in perhaps its most clamored-for spot. The new Diced will open at 321 N. Main St. in Holly Springs.
“Holly Springs is by far, by a landslide, our biggest fan base,” Woodward said. “We’ve been close on a space there three times. So finally we made it our mission that Holly Springs is next, no matter what.”
The Holly Springs Diced will open in a former Pizza Hut and become Diced’s first stand-alone building. The larger, 3,000-square-foot space is about double the typical Diced size and will also serve as the company’s commissary kitchen, Woodward said, an effort to improve consistency.
The new Holly Springs Diced will open in Spring 2025.
Eventually Woodward would like to see Diced grow to 10 locations throughout the Triangle, with Wake County towns like Wake Forest and Garner on the radar.
The ambitious goal comes as the Triangle attracts numerous new locations from national fast-casual brands. Woodward believes Diced has found its success in simplicity, streamlining its offerings and adding Brandon Christy as an operating partner.
The Diced menu
The brand and its menu have continued to evolve and mature. It dropped “gourmet salads and wraps” from its name, it rebranded menu items, changing the vegetarian salad “No Meat for Me” to the “Harvest Crunch,” and immediately saw a spike in sales.
“It’s the same salad,” Woodward said. “All we did is change the name. We’ve simplified it over time.”
As a life-long athlete, Woodward maintains a competitive edge and brings an athlete’s perspective to exactly how food impacts our bodies.
Though she was a top college athlete in her sport, winning national championships while at the University of Louisville, Michelle Woodward ran on late-night Taco Bell and Wendy’s.
“As an athlete that was busy, I was eating at Taco Bell in Wendy’s, like, daily, legitimately,” Woodward said. “So I knew it was a need that I wanted, and then I just didn’t see anybody doing it with high quality ingredients....I was scared of getting that fatty piece of chicken, because I’m really particular, so I’d stop eating my bowl if I got like a piece of fat. So that was my goal, to not have anybody be scared of ordering chicken or steak or anything.”
An athlete who craved healthy food for fuel
Woodward grew up in the bustling Northern Virginia suburbs and was in gymnastics before her second birthday. Then middle school gymnastics led to competitive cheerleading, a physically demanding sport far from its pom pom reputation, combining dancing, acrobatics and tumbling.
“I tried it, and was like a natural,” Woodward said. “(Flying) really drew me, and then just being good at it, like at the top the entire time, I think probably drew me to it too. And I didn’t really picture myself going to one of the top cheerleading schools, but the fact that that was even an option really pushed me a little bit more.”
Cheerleading doesn’t work like most collegiate sports. The University of Louisville is one of the country’s best schools for competitive cheer, but Woodward still had to try out and pay tuition to go there, she said. When she got there, she was one of 60 freshmen and found herself outside the competition team. By her senior year she had made Team USA, won worlds and nationals and was one of five gymnasts from her entering class still on the team.
“I’ve just never been like a person that gives up, ever,” Woodward said. “I was the one who got injured my senior year right before worlds and thought, ‘You can’t let the team down.’ So I went to physical therapy. I went to the doctor. They put me in a boot. Said I couldn’t compete. So I was like, okay, never talking to you again. I took my boot off before practice, wrapped it up numb....I wouldn’t change it.”
In college Woodward got her only restaurant experience before opening Diced, working as a short-lived hostess at Buffalo Wild Wings, quitting when the restaurant scheduled her during a Louisville football game when she was needed on the sidelines.
“I had to quit because they made me,” Woodward said. “They told me I had to work during a game that I obviously had to cheer.”
After graduating from Louisville, Woodward stayed in Kentucky and started working in a physical therapy clinic while also coaching cheerleading. This could have been the path for her, but something else kept nagging. Something compelled her to write out a menu and a vague sense of a restaurant. A job in her company opened up in Cary and she moved to North Carolina to continue working and launch the first Diced.
“I always wanted to be an entrepreneur,” Woodward said. “That was just my goal in life. So I was always thinking of different businesses.”
Over the years, as Diced has grown and evolved, Woodward has remained obsessed with maintaining a fresh, healthy menu. A sleepless night led to switching to olive oil in all of Diced’s dressings. The beef is grass-fed, and everything is made from scratch on the menu.
“We just go a little bit of the extra mile to actually fuel people correctly,” Woodward said. “You have to stand out somehow, or else you just get it thrown into the mix. So yeah, I always had this drive to be like, unique and stand out and be the best. I always want to do the best at everything, even making salads.”
This story was originally published December 5, 2024 at 3:27 PM.
