Rethinking take-out one meal at a time
By Rochelle Moore
Published in News on March 18, 2018 3:05 AM
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Clean Eatz has a variety of menu items prepared at the Eastgate Drive restaurant, including a honey mustard chicken panini, prepared with chicken breast, turkey bacon, onions, spinach, tomato and honey mustard. The sandwich is served with one side dish.
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News-Argus/ROCHELLE MOORE
Clean Eatz owner Mike Garrett, center, pose for a photograph with restaurant staff, from left, Haley Strickland, Taylor Stremick, Scout Anderson and Taylor-Quinn Yancey, manager.
A healthy lifestyle restaurant that offers meal plans, customized diets, take-out and dining options is now serving the Goldsboro area.
Clean Eatz, at 502-A Eastgate Drive near Barnes Jewelers, is open for business Monday through Friday, from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m., and Saturday from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.
The restaurant, where all food items are prepared and cooked on-site, provides dine-in service and a menu with sandwiches, wraps, flatbreads, child's meals and smoothies. Clean Eatz serves food that is as close as possible to its natural state, said Taylor-Quinn Yancey, manager.
"There's nothing around here like this," said owner Mike Garrett, who also owns CrossFit Goldsboro. "We're a healthier choice with a wide range of proteins, vegetables and carbohydrates.
"(We're here) to educate and change people's lives."
Clean Eatz has a full menu that includes burgers, without hamburger, but instead made with turkey, black bean or bison. Several sandwich and flatbread meals, as well as wraps, are available. There are also menu items geared toward customers interested in building muscle.
"We do have healthier versions of traditional foods," Yancey said. "All of (our) wraps are ordered every day. Our most popular option is build your own bowl. That one is customizable."
Customers can decide on one of three build your own bowl sizes. The bowls are built by first selecting a base, such as brown rice, spinach or a sweet potato, and adding protein, three vegetables and a sauce.
Snacks, such as buffalo cauliflower and nachos, are on the menu, as well as several all-protein smoothies and children's meals. Children can choose from a teriyaki chicken bowl, taco nacho, barbecue beef flatbread and a salmon-based meal.
"It's teaching the younger generation how to eat healthy," Garrett said. "We're educating and teaching kids how to eat correctly to help set them up for success."
No salt or butter are added during the cooking process and all vegetables are steamed, Yancey said. Sodium and calorie free spices are available in the restaurant or for purchase.
Clean Eatz also has a booklet available for customers interested in knowing the nutritional content of every item, including the amount of calories, fat, protein and carbohydrates. The booklet also provides information for people with certain allergies.
Clean Eatz is able to customize orders that match the nutritional needs of customers.
Employees are also available to help customers plan meals if they are trying to lose weight, improve overall health or if they have health complications and need to restrict certain items from a menu plan.
"We want people, if they have a goal in the gym or lifestyle goals, we want to be able to be a part of that and help people reach their goals," Garrett said. "It's another way that we can help change lives."
The business is far more than a restaurant, with its highest volume of business from prepackaged and preordered meals. Clean Eatz in Goldsboro sells close to 1,200 meals per week, Garrett said. All of the meals are prepared inside the restaurant.
Prepackaged meal menus are released every Thursday, with ordering available online at www.cleaneatz.com, Thursday through Sunday, and available for pickup Monday or Tuesday.
The business also has freezers stocked with Grab-n-Go meals. Breakfast items start at $5 and lunch and dinner meals are $6.50.
"These meals last in the refrigerator one week and six months in the freezer," Yancey said.
Clean Eatz also provides catering service to the local community.
Garrett, who owns three businesses, including two in Goldsboro, has a master's degree in exercise science and health promotion. Prior to opening Clean Eatz, he was a professor at the University of Mount Olive.
Yancey, who previously worked as assistant director of the UMO wellness center, has a bachelor's degree in recreation management and a master's degree in recreation administration.
"I've been passionate about health and wellness since college," Yancey said. "It's easy to put in work at the gym and not see results because you're not eating well."
Clean Eatz plans to roll out new menu options in April. New items include three different salads, a vegetarian burger, more vegetarian and vegan options, green smoothies, a new making muscle burger and all new side items.
"This is how the body is intended to eat, not processed junk all the time," Garrett said. "The cleaner the food, the better it is."