Clean Eatz bringing healthy meal plans, cafe to Fishers later this year

Clean Eatz plans to open its first central Indiana location in Fishers in September. (Rendering courtesy of Clean Eatz)

Clean Eatz, a rapidly growing health food chain offering both in-person café dining and meal plans, will open its first central Indiana location in Fishers this September, with plans to potentially open three others in the area.

Jeffrey Leifel and Cassie Henegar are waiting until after their August wedding to open Clean Eatz at 8510 E. 96th St. over Labor Day weekend. Leifel said the North Carolina-based restaurant chain has 54 locations across the nation, and over 60 new restaurants are currently in development. Clean Eatz opened its first Indiana location in Dyer last spring, and the Fishers couple is planning to open three more in downtown Indianapolis and the northern suburbs if their first store does well.

“They have been growing quite quickly,” Leifel said. “For us to be able to get the Indianapolis market and be hopefully the only ones out here, it’s pretty neat.”

Don and Evonne Varady founded Clean Eatz in 2013, and Henegar first found the restaurant while living in Knoxville, Tennessee. She was having health problems at the time and decided to change her diet, and she’s been a customer of restaurant for nearly four years now.

The couple was ultimately sold on opening a Clean Eatz for the brand’s health focus; Henegar is a fitness trainer and Leifel, a fire and hazardous materials instructor, runs triathlons.

Clean Eatz will open in the 2,800-square-foot space previously occupied by Red Habanero Mexican Grill, which moved down the street to 8133 E. 96^th St. in February. When it opens, the store will have 34 seats inside and 18 outside on the patio. Henegar expects to hire roughly 7 to 10 employees to start, with the potential for more as business picks up.

The format gives customers three dining options: direct-to-consumer meal plans, grab-and-go dishes and in-person café dining.

Each Thursday, Clean Eatz establishes a menu of fresh meals prepared from a library of over 1,000 options. Customers then have until Sunday night to place their order for pick-up on Monday or Tuesday. The plans include five different lunch or dinner meals and one breakfast type, with selections like firecracker meatballs, jerk steak with pineapple salsa, smoked salmon sliders, egg bites with coffee cake and more.

Meals are pre-portioned and microwaveable, with macro-nutritional information right on the label. Depending on the quantity ordered, meals can cost as low as $6.10.

Those customers who choose to come into the store may build their own bowls, salads, burgers, wraps and more for around $8 to $12. Smoothies, infused water, tea, snacks and other healthy options round out the menu. Customers are also able to make individual or family-style selections from the store’s grab-and-go freezers.

Leifel said the meal plans and grab-and-go options make up roughly 75% of the store’s revenues, and those parts of the business overlap so that little-to-no food goes to waste: What’s left over from the week’s fresh meal plans is incorporated into those frozen meals.

Should the first store turn out to be profitable, Leifel said additional locations may open on a rolling 18-month schedule. Before the restaurant’s grand opening, Henegar said Clean Eatz will be present at the Spark!Fishers festival between June 22 and June 26.