Meridith Coyle’s ANEU Kitchens: Using "Craveable" Food for Better Health And Wellness

Meridith Coyle’s ANEU Kitchens: Using "Craveable" Food for Better Health And Wellness

What if you could transform your love for food into a thriving business while promoting wellness and healthier living? In this episode of the Good Neighbor Podcast, our Host Bob Blaisse interviews Meridith Coyle, the culinary pioneer and entrepreneur who turned her personal mission of making "craveable" food be nutritious, into a successful venture with her ANEU Kitchens. Meridith's story is a heartfelt journey from farmers' markets to her first brick-and-mortar store, driven by her experience of her father's illness and her goal to make comfort foods healthier for overall wellness. Hear how the success of her mission has led to multiple ANEU Kitchens, serving delicious meals and snacks, to catering and even QVC.

Get ready to meet the wellness guru behind the kind of nutrition you crave: "YEU On-The-Go Bites, Meridith Coyle's innovative line of snack bites with adaptogens, certain herbs, roots and other plant substances that can help manage stress and restore when also combined with other delicious and all-natural ingredients that redefine healthy snacking. You'll hear Meredith walk us through the creation of these gluten-free, dairy-free and refined sugar-free snacks, designed to keep you full and energized without a sugar crash. While listening, you'll discover why the mission behind ANEU Kitchens is making waves with Meridith's multiple retail locations in Southeastern Pennsylvania and the Jersey Shore.

This episode of the Good Neighbor Podcast is packed with inspiration and practical advice for anyone looking to make healthier food choices or to explore entrepreneurship in the food industry.

ANEU Kitchens
ANEUKitchens.com
610-251-9600
Paoli, PA and Wayne, PA
Ocean City, NJ and Margate, NJ
"YEUSnacks On-The-Go Bites
NutritionYEUCrave.com

--- About The Show--- Good Neighbor Podcast is a spotlight on local businesses in and around Delaware County, PA (“Delco” ) and Beyond...  The executive producer and host, Bob Blaisse, is a community sponsorship advocate, business branding specialist, and publisher of several hometown magazines, including: Newtown Square Friends & Neighbors, Marple Friends & Neighbors and Newtown Edgmont Friends & Neighbors, mailed monthly to more than 12,000 homes in Western Delaware County, PA, and also available for reading online.
 

Transcript

Healthy Food Entrepreneurship and Expansion

Speaker 1 0:00

Hello, delco. This is Michael Barkan, welcoming you to the Good Neighbor Podcast, where fans of local businesses and their neighbors come together. It's my pleasure once again to introduce my friend and neighbor, our host Bob Lacey.

Speaker 2 0:18

Thank you, michael Barkan, and hey listeners. Today we have a great episode of the Good Neighbor Podcast. I always love when we bring on a seasoned entrepreneur in a market that is different than a market that we might normally be hearing about, and in this case, we certainly have a guest that is definitely a let's let's say kind of a guru, an expert, someone that knows their field for 25, 35 years and has good taste. Well, let's find out why and what market we're talking about. Let me bring to the stage here Meredith Coyle. Meredith, welcome to the Good Neighbor podcast.

Speaker 3 0:56

Thank you so much. It's awesome to be here.

Speaker 2 0:59

I want to tell the listeners, Meredith, that we absolutely have a good neighbor business on our hands. Now, how do we judge that? Many ways, too many ways to ever talk about. But here's what we know Everybody loves to eat good food and everybody wants to eat food that's more healthy for them, and so that has kind of been your whole career as a pioneer in that area, correct?

Speaker 3 1:23

Correct. Our tagline is comfort food made healthier. So I think we hit that right on the head.

Speaker 2 1:29

And, meredith, you're not just a person that's kind of jumping out into the health food space, which is, admittedly, kind of a hard space to jump into, because, first of all, health food is known to be healthy but it's got to taste all right for us to even want it. But in your case, you've taken kind of a career path towards healthier foods and nutrition, but doing it in ways that we would maybe not see as plentiful. You do it through catering, through retail stores, through things that you can buy online or maybe even see on TV. I mean, tell us a little bit about how the career of Meredith Coyle began and how you kind of began to be kind of a pioneer in the culinary arts.

Speaker 3 2:12

Wow, that's like a very loaded question, but the long short version is that my parents were in the restaurant business my whole life and about 25 years ago my dad got sick and I was already in farmer's markets, which, of course, you're surrounded by beautiful healthy produce and meat and all that kind of stuff which was different than we learned about in supermarkets years ago. I'm sure you can agree with that. And my dad got sick and when he did, the first thing I turned to was research and education on how to use food as medicine, whereas most people most of us use food without thinking, without being mindful, and it becomes poison to our body. And so, unfortunately, my dad was super old fashioned and he didn't have much interest in it. But it took me on a path that I've been unable to turn around from. So I was in farmer's markets from 92, gosh until about 2000 when I opened my first brick and mortar and it was just a little grab and go shop and from that I started to do some catering. I did corporate catering and big weddings for people who really wanted whole foods, and that's really the base of what we do.

Speaker 3 3:29

I am plant-based myself, but I do all whole foods cooking and people say healthy food. It's just really the way food was supposed to be and it's turned into healthy because I am a lifelong learner and I actually just started school right now to learn the energy of food through macrobiotics, just to take it to another level. But in this process of just creating good whole foods, I have become a caterer, a corporate caterer, a residential caterer. We do meal prep and shipping of food all over the country. We also now, recently, we're on QVC selling our quiche, you know. Anyway, I feel like all of a sudden our world has hit a tipping point where, you know, we've got these buzzwords of healthy food or whole foods or whatever somebody's specific dietary concept or restrictions or challenges are, and because we do everything from scratch, we can sort of touch everybody in a way where we can enhance and make their lives healthier.

Speaker 2 4:33

You're doing it. I mean what happened here? Listeners, I have to say that the nominations that come in for Good Neighbor businesses to be featured on the Good Neighbor podcast they come in, they're plentiful. We don't do every episode, every nomination that comes in, but when we find a business that is so well known and out there for a long period of time but maybe not known by the larger group of people, this is a business and we'll start with the brand. I think that it's most well known, meredith is your Anew Kitchens and probably the one that is closest. We're coming from kind of the western side of Delaware County, pennsylvania, but there is an Anew Kitchen in the Paoli Shopping Center, I think it is, or on Lancaster Avenue, as I recall, in Paoli, correct?

Speaker 3 5:23

Well we are now. I actually started in Paoli Shopping Center years and years ago with my dad and then we went to Delaware County to the Wayne Farmers Market and now we're our commissary is in like Dalesford, berwyn, paoli area on Route 30. We've got a 60 seat venue there as well as that's a shot at one of our first grab and go shops, like I guess it's our anchor store.

Speaker 2 5:49

I guess you would call it a retail shop and for those of you listening that want to know we keep saying here I've been saying, but I see, I'm looking at it in print it's called the a new kitchen and um, uh, it's spelled differently. Right, it's spelled A-N-E-U, um, kind of sounds like a new kitchen, but uh, you know it's, it's really A-N-E-U. Was there something specific about that uh choice that you did to kind of create this a new kitchen and juicery, which is a cool word too. Tell us a little bit of how that name came about, just for a branding purpose or did it come upon you for?

Speaker 3 6:26

other reasons. Yeah, I mean, there's a lot of stories about that and ultimately, anum in German means without compare, and I always say you're only as good as your last meal, so you don't want to ever drop the ball. I'm blessed now because my three daughters are actually in the business with me, running all different facets of the company, and you know it's always you know, out with the old, in with the new, kind of Well, you've been doing it for years.

Speaker 2 6:53

Yeah, I mean to see that this project of yours, which encompasses both a retail opportunity for people to come and taste these healthy kind of foods and we're going to get to that but to do it on a retail level and to bring those same kind of culinary choices but healthy food that can be delivered really for corporate needs and for catered events, it's an interesting niche that you have taken. We're talking to Meredith Coyle, who is a many-year learned I guess we have to say culinary pioneer in the area of healthy foods, and taking it not only into the retail spaces, with a store in Paoli, pennsylvania, and a new kitchen and juicery. But I'm also aware, meredith, there's other stores. You have a couple shops in the Jersey Shore area and more to come as well. Tell us a little bit about the locations.

Speaker 3 7:53

So our second location was in Ocean City, new Jersey, because that's where we all grew up and went, and then we realized that the business down there I mean, what can you eat at the shore? Right, pizza and cheesesteaks and sticky buns, which are great, but then you have to eat while you're down there for a few weeks. So we opened in Ocean City, then we opened in Margate and we have been building with the federal government in Valley Forge National Historic Park, which is the most exciting thing we're doing. Wow, that is slated to open in November and we're opening in Bryn Mawr, hopefully July 1st.

Speaker 2 8:29

That's a lot of opportunity and a lot of projects. I think what we need to do, though, is really kind of reel in a bit for our listeners today that are listening about the Anew Kitchen, today, that are listening about the a new kitchen, it's a n, e, u and and uh. The domain there, if you want to go visit the website, is, as I, as I recall, uh, you know, meredith, it's, it's just a new kitchens dot com. Right, is there an s at the end of that?

Speaker 3 8:55

there, there is plural.

Healthy Snack Foods by Anew Kitchens

Speaker 2 8:56

So it's a n? E? U kitchens plural dot com, and you'll be able to see more and certainly a lot about the menus. But I want to kind of move into a space here where something that I read about and I think this might be one of the reasons why your Good Neighbor Business was nominated You've stretched a bit into the kind of foods that would be in a health food kind of coffee bakery or or even just snack shop or something you you've not only stretched in the area of being able to do catering and and have a retail shop to come in and have some food, but you've actually stretched into creating a kind of a new kind of snack food that is not just healthy snack food, it's the kind of nutritional food that you're, you're, you crave, but done a different way.

Speaker 2 9:42

You call them you snacks and in this case it kind of rhymes with a new how Meredith is spelled, a N? E U, in this case her you snacks. This would be Y E? U. It kind of rides off that a new brand that she has. But tell us about the the you snacks, meredith, because this is different. They're. They're kind of like small, they almost look like donut holes, but they're not and give us an idea of how healthy they are. Certainly in an opposite effect of craving donut holes round little grab bites. Tell us what the you snacks are made of and what purpose they are. You snacks are made of and what purpose they are? Because when people hear the value of this these ingredients in the food to be able to reduce your stress or give energy or or even make you more healthy in certain areas, this is exciting.

Speaker 3 10:30

Well, so I want to first tell you that you the playoff of the word anew. You means love in Japanese, and in our kitchens we say it doesn't matter the recipe, if you're not cooking with love, you're not cooking, and so it was really fun when those two, the two worlds, came together. Them on the go, adaptogenic bites. They can be meal replacements. They are all of your macros in one little bite. Two of them are a meal replacement. There's no gluten, dairy or refined sugar, and we, at this point, have 13 flavors that are just super fun and really good and, unlike a donut hole where you get high from the sugar and then you come down from the sugar high, this is because you have all of the fiber and all of the seeds and the nuts and the good stuff. It metabolizes in your body much slower and when that happens, you're fuller longer and it also has these adaptogens in it.

Speaker 3 11:34

So we've got one that's called living in cinnamon. It tastes like a cinnamon toast crunch and it is um, it is so good and it's a great meal, so it's really very interesting. The whole line's very interesting. We also do chia puddings and superfood bars and protein bars, because, you know, a granola bar is mostly sugar when you go and buy one at the supermarket. Protein bars are mostly gums and gels and preservatives and additives, and we use none of that, and so it is really a great line that's going to be expanded upon. Like I think I was saying earlier, we ship all over the country and these become part of your daily meal, which is really exciting.

Speaker 2 12:25

We're very lucky to be able to have you kind of located here in the southeastern Pennsylvania area with the new kitchens, you know, for catering purposes, but even more so the new kitchen and juicery shops where these comfort foods, as Meredith likes to call it, but comfort foods that we love, now made healthier.

Speaker 2 12:46

And that's the mission that seems to be coming across here loud and clear, both with the new kitchens and also the U snacks. And that's why, eu, I find that you know people might be thinking oh, I've tried, you know, healthy snack foods before and I never really liked the taste of it, never tasted that good. But the fact that there are retail locations not far away from us here in the southeastern Pennsylvania area, but also down at the Jersey Shore, as we call it, in both Margate, new Jersey, and also in Ocean City, new Jersey, you can visit one of Meredith Coyle's Anew Kitchens shops and visit online first at anewkitchenscom that's A-N-E-U kitchenscom. You'll see the menus, you'll learn about these healthier comfort foods that are made healthier by this really culinary pioneer, I think, heading always towards wellness and teaching wellness through the comfort foods that we crave, but the craved foods done differently, with ingredients that not only fill our cravings, but actually make us healthier. Meredith, it has been a pleasure. Well, we can't make medical claims now Bob.

Speaker 2 14:03

Well, that's true, no medical claims. But we all know that most of us are taking supplements and most of us know the benefits of taking supplements, that kind of add to our day because we're not watching what we eat and not eating the kind of foods that will make us healthier. This is certainly things that can be learned. It can learn to be learned online at the website for a new kitchenscom and I'm sure Meredith is probably available, as busy as she is at times with any listeners that would really like to have a conversation. You know, start by coming to the website and then maybe even going to one of the stores. But you heard Meredith talk about she's national. She's selling her products even on QVC, and so this is really a professional here that knows her items.

Speaker 2 14:44

Big companies like QVC don't don't make opportunities with businesses that haven't been vetted as much as this business certainly has. And, as I started to say there, meredith, your business, a New Kitchen, is really a good neighbor business, because you're helping us all of us learn to eat healthier and doing it with love, passion. We can hear in your voice because it's after all, we really do crave comfort foods, and you're making them healthier without taking away the craving that we have for the quality foods that we have for the, for the quality foods that we know we should be eating. So thank you for thank you for your, your effort, meredith. I hope we get a chance to meet someday, and I and I would ask any of our listeners out there if you listen to this podcast episode and you do get a chance to meet Meredith Coyle, please say hello for us, because I think, of all the podcasts we've ever done, meredith, this is the one that crosses into the lane of all of us, because we all eat. We all should be conscious of eating more healthy.

Speaker 3 15:43

Well, thank you, and I just wanted to mention I just signed on with Mainline School Night and I'll be teaching a class in the fall. So if you want to come to a class, we'd love to have anybody there and we'll do some, you know, quick exchanges for, you know some yummy comfort food instead of eating the not so healthy stuff.

Speaker 2 16:04

Amen and Meredith. Where can they learn more? Is there a website for the Mainline School?

Speaker 3 16:10

Yeah, I think Mainline School Night has a website. I don't know.

Speaker 2 16:35

It's pretty popular around here, but I'm sure that you can just go online the house and learn how to cook a little healthier. And again, just another example of the great mission that Meredith Coyle has as an entrepreneur, a woman of business who is bringing her passion to her business and helping us all at the same time Definitely a good neighbor business that is well-deserved of our Good Neighbor Business Award. Meredith Coyle, thank you so much for being a guest on our Good Neighbor podcast today and we wish you the very best and everybody. Go check Meredith Coyle's website out. It's anewkitchenscom, a-n-e-u. Kitchenscom.

Speaker 3 17:05

Thank you, meredith. Thanks for having me, bob, I appreciate it.

Speaker 2 17:08

Surely.

Speaker 1 17:09

Thank you for listening to the Good Neighbor podcast hosted by Bob Lacey. This is Michael Barkan inviting everyone to get on the Good Neighbor team. Nominate your favorite local business to be featured on an upcoming episode by going to gnddelcocom or by calling Bob at 610-557-3745.