Mother-son team launches meal prep shop in Palm Coast

Palm Coast Observer
Business

When Joey Soltes was in sixth grade, he was diagnosed with Crohn’s disease — an inflammatory bowel disease that has affected his energy, ability to hold down food and has hospitalized him several times.

“I was on a mission to help him get better,” said Joey Soltes’ mother, Jodee Soltes.

The family started to eat healthy, whole foods, and they noticed a difference in Joey Soltes’ condition.

“When you’re younger and you have Crohn’s, you just think it’s unfair,” Joey Soltes said. “You still want to eat what you want to eat. Until you get older and a little more mature, you don’t realize that eating better will actually help you. It took me a while, but probably 16 or 17 I realized I wanted to cook for a living.”

Now at age 26, he’s working toward a culinary degree from Daytona State College and recently opened Clean Eats Kitchen in City Marketplace with Jodee Soltes in March.

The restaurant is a meal prep service, dedicated to cooking meals made with locally farmed ingredients, so that people who don’t have time to cook or don’t want to still can have healthy, heat-up-at-home options throughout the week.

“That’s the one thing with meal prep: You get bored of eating the same thing over and over,” Joey Soltes said. “So, we’re trying to target having a different menu every week so people don’t get bored.”

There are three meal prep plans for people to choose from: clean light (in calorie count to lose weight), clean traditional (a full, balanced meal) and clean athletic (for those who are working out more and need additional calories). The meals change each week.

Before opening the shop at 160 Cypress Point Parkway, Unit A106, the pair collected survey results from about 115 around town at gyms, weight loss centers and salons. What they suspected was accurate: People want more healthy options in Palm Coast.

“People have to understand that eating right, you can feel better,” Jodee Soltes said.

Their main demographic so far has been people in their 20s and 30s, but Jodee Soltes said some older customers who just don’t want to cook are also taking advantage of the new service.

“For young professionals, it’s easier to grab a meal than it is to sit home on Sunday and cook — because they’re out doing things,” Joey Soltes said.

Joey Soltes preps, cooks and packages up the meals on a weekly basis. They’re fresh for up to five days after they’re prepared, he said.

Clean Eats Kitchen serves packaged lunches and dinners, a variety of vegan baked goods, and they have nitro cold brew and kombucha on tap.

They are planning to start offering delivery Sunday, April 28, for orders placed by noon Thursday, April 25. Call 627 -8885, email [email protected] or visit https://www.cleaneatsflagler.com.