Help Wanted

At the end of a long day, dreaming up something good for dinner can zap your last ounce of energy, especially if you neglected to stock the pantry or fridge recently.

Local chefs, eateries, and national meal delivery services are acing the job of providing dinner by whatever suits customers best. Heat-and-eat meals can be picked up or delivered, online all-inclusive food kits can be delivered to your door, and a personal chef can transform at-home mealtime into a delicious event.

There are a variety of options worth exploring that will plummet the grocery store rotisserie chicken to the bottom of your go-to list.                                          

Good to Go

Prepared Meals

One local café burgeoning with the prepared meals option is Clean Eatz. Now a national chain with about 100 locations, the original restaurant on Racine Drive in Wilmington was founded by bodybuilders Don and Evonne Varady.

Each Thursday a menu is posted online for the next week’s order. There are five dinner options and one breakfast item each week to consider. Recent selections included Balsamic Peach Chicken, Boneless Asian Sticky Ribs, Steak Totchos (made with sweet potato tots), Queso Beef Bowl and PB&J French Toast. Each meal sells for approximately $7.60, with slight decreases in price with larger orders.

Clean Eatz manager Sam Hines says the menus change every week and are available to pick up Sunday or Monday. Each fresh meal is sealed and microwaveable, or easily transferred to a pan for oven or stovetop heating.

“They are completely ready to go, no prepping, no cleaning, no grocery shopping,” Hines says. “And there is never any obligation to order each week, you just order online when you want.”

There is a minimum of five meals required to order and increases are done in multiples of five. The Racine Clean Eatz location offers pickup-only service for the weekly meal plan. A delivery option is available with similar meals through the Clean Eatz Kitchen website.

Another ready-to-go option comes from Raleigh caterers LadyFingers. Their frozen Gourmet to Go items are sold at Blue Moon Gifts and include three-cheese mac and cheese, casseroles, lasagna, soups, chicken enchiladas and more. Dishes come in medium and large quantities. A lasagna to feed 2-4 people sells for about $18 and a whole pie quiche is $22. Dozens of boutique and novelty stores sell their frozen products throughout the Southeast, and direct buying online is also available.

Another local premade meal service with multiple Wilmington pickup locations is Green, Lean, Clean (GLC). It offers a variety of serving sizes and has just added soups and bowls to the health-minded array of offerings.

Each GLC meal provides a lean protein, green vegetable and clean starch, such as quinoa or red potatoes, in equal portions. The meal plans cater to a variety of diet styles, including high protein, vegan, or vegetarian, and will work with customers who have food allergies.

The GLC meal plans are weekly or monthly and they also feature breakfast items including sweet potato pancakes and egg-white omelets, and offer delicious sounding protein muffins and bars, like snickerdoodle bars.

One of the unique things about GLC is the many pickup locations they offer in the Wilmington area, many of which are gyms that provide the service to members only. They also deliver meals to many cities in eastern and central North Carolina. GLC was founded in Washington, N.C. in 2016. Owner Jaryd Acheson opened the location at 7316 Market Street in 2018.

Chop, Stir, Cook

Meal Delivery Kits 

For those who enjoy cooking but may not have time to research recipes and buy ingredients, meal preparation kits like Blue Apron and Hello Fresh are affordable options. Each service provides a wide variety, with around 20-25 different meals to choose from each week. 

Wilmington resident Tara Brook has tried both delivery services and initially preferred the flavors and cooking techniques of Blue Apron. She has become a fan of Hello Fresh for their packaging and organization.

“Blue Apron throws all the ingredients for the meals in one big box, so you have to figure what goes with what recipe. With Hello Fresh, each meal is in its own brown paper bag with the items labeled and separated,” Brook says. “We get four meals a week from Hello Fresh, so we only have three nights that we have to figure things out. It is pretty affordable, it’s about 80 bucks a week.”

Another perk of following the Hello Fresh recipes has been to spice up her cooking.

“It has helped my cooking skills. I’m a boring cook; doing these menus helped me learn how important the sauces are to put on top of chicken, pork, etc.,” she says.

Produce needs to be washed, dried and chopped, and occasionally an important ingredient is omitted from the order so some improvising might need to be done. Both Blue Apron and Hello Fresh are recurring order services that can be suspended or canceled at any time.

“There have been instances with both companies where we didn’t receive an item in the order, and we would report the mistake and receive a discount. The customer service for both companies is excellent,” Brook says.

Customers rave about the quality of the fresh ingredients and the variety of new and rotating recipes.

“The best part of the service is being able to taste so many different types of cuisine,” Brook says. “It really is restaurant quality. There are a lot of times when we’re sitting here at home, and we say this is better than what we would have ordered at a restaurant, and it would have cost twice as much.”

At Your Service

Personal Chefs

If you’ve dreamed of having someone come into your home, build the menu, buy the groceries, chop the vegetables, cook, serve with style, and clean the pans before they go, then consider a personal chef service.

There are some high-caliber services that will design meals or a special event in the convenience of your home or vacation rental. 

Salt & Charm offers both in-home chef services and mouth-watering meal pickup and delivery options. The in-home service intends to alleviate the stress of doing-it-all so you can enjoy the meal and your family or company.

Reading the chef bios on the website will make you feel like you have a friend coming over to cook. Noted among the resumes, there is a clear love of food mixed with a love of people.

A few recent options included tasty descriptions of meat-free curries, a turkey, apple and brie croissant, panko-encrusted Dijon salmon, fruit kebabs, and ham and cheese sliders for the kids. Prices vary per item.

Delivery is an option, or foods can be picked up at their store located at 702 South 17th Street.

Kendra Burgon has a growing client base with Nourish Nosh, an in-home meal preparation business.

“We do a whole lot more private dinner parties with a 12-15 guest maximum,” Burgon says. “Our chef goes in with all the ingredients and prepares a three-course plated and seated dinner at their home or vacation rental.”

Chef Will Doss, who opened RX Restaurant on Castle Street with his brother, James, is the head chef for Nourish Nosh.

“I’ve been so lucky to have him onboard,” Burgon says. “He puts together some really gorgeous menus with a focus on seasonal and local ingredients.”

Her team works with a lot of gluten-free, vegetarian and vegan clients. Nourish Nosh, like most of the local caterers and chefs, works hard to support local producers.

“We support local farmers as much as we can and that has grown and morphed into opening our own grocery store — which is pretty wild,” Burgon says.

Nourish Nosh currently has a waiting list for meal prep but is still taking dinner parties and in-home events. Getting the Home Grown Market open in the Cargo District of Wilmington, at 15th and Queen, has taken priority.

Grocery Finds

Major grocery store chains have reopened some of their previous meals-to-go options, such as daily made sushi and pick-your-own salad bar, but the popular hot Asian bar has not returned to College Road Harris Teeter at this time.

In Wrightsville Beach, Robert’s Market on Lumina Avenue serves up breakfast and hot lunches. Plan ahead and reach their deli before it closes at 5 p.m. to take home the illustrious chicken salad sandwich, or hit the right day for meatloaf on Tuesday, Mexican inspired on Wednesday, or BBQ pork on Friday. Fried chicken is available any day of the week.