At many restaurants around the country, romaine is still on the menu. Both family-run operations and big chains say they've checked with suppliers and are confident their romaine comes from places that aren't affected by E. coli. If they're not sure, they're replacing romaine with iceberg and other lettuce varieties.
"We've got a lot of people asking where we get our lettuce from," said Armando Ayala, the manager of Cavatore, an Italian restaurant in Houston. Cavatore offers three dinner salads — including a Caesar made tableside — with lettuce from California and local farms in Texas.
As it turns out, a lot of romaine comes from California, which grows 74 percent of the nation's lettuce, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Even Salad and Go, a chain with 12 restaurants in Arizona, gets its lettuce from California.
Katie Calabrese and her friend, Amanda Larsen, both threw out romaine at home, but it didn't stop their salad cravings. On Thursday, they were waiting in a long line at a Sweetgreen restaurant in Philadelphia.
"I'm definitely making non-romaine choices," said Calabrese.
"I eat kale," Larsen said.
The CDC first announced a multistate outbreak of E. coli on April 10. By the end of last week, it was advising customers, grocers and restaurants not to eat whole heads of romaine or salad mixes that might contain romaine unless they knew they weren't grown in Yuma.
Salads UP, which has two restaurants in Ann Arbor, Michigan, and Madison, Wisconsin, says it didn't have to get rid of much romaine, since it gets deliveries almost daily. For now, it has replaced romaine with iceberg, says Salads UP co-founder Robert Mayer.
"Customers don't mind the temporary solution, and in general they appreciate that we are taking precautionary steps," he said.
McDonald's, Wendy's and Chick-fil-A say none of the romaine in their U.S. stores comes from Yuma. But Chick-fil-A says it's making some salads with other lettuces or not offering them at all because of a shortage of romaine.
Frog Holler, a produce wholesaler that distributes to restaurants in Michigan, says all of its romaine comes from California. But many customers weren't ordering it because of the scare. Iceberg orders increased slightly. Others would only take romaine with an official statement that it was safe, said Brittany Savela, an office assistant.
"We just couldn't get our hands on it anymore," she said. But things are now returning to normal.
They hope the E. coli issue is cleared up soon and that people recognize the problem doesn't affect all romaine lettuce. The Richters say they use conventional fertilizers — not manure — and irrigate with well water to help keep their crops safe.
"The biggest testament is that we eat it," Timothy Richter said.