Today we’d like to introduce you to Neal Gartrell.
Hi Neal, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstories.
I have been in the restaurant business for 25 years. Of those years I spent 9 years in the military and serving my country in Desert Storm. Graduating college with a Business Management degree. I started in the food and beverage industry as a Food and Beverage Director. People and food are a passion for me.
My wife and I grew up in Ohio and fell in love with Norris Lake and the Knoxville area. We would frequent the area for vacations and had said that “We will retire in Knoxville”. For several years, my wife and I wanted to do our own concept. I had been a Managing Partner for Carrabbas Italian Grill for 14 years and we almost pulled the trigger on a couple of different concepts we were thinking about but nothing seemed quite right.
Our son moved to Wilmington, NC, and was in sales with a large supplement company. He has always been into fitness and started working part-time for Don and Evonne (co-founders of Clean Eatz) to make some extra cash. Our son, Zach called us one day and said that Clean Eatz was starting to franchise. I really wanted to do our own concept so I didn’t take it too seriously until he wouldn’t let up. I decided to do some research and was impressed with their business model and their core value which was… Taking care of people!!!!
My wife and I prayed over it long and hard and we knew what our calling was to do. So we sold EVERYTHING and moved to Knoxville to open 3 stores in three years! We sold the house that we built, almost all of our “toys”, the boat that we loved, and trailer to Norris for years and uprooted our daughter from high school. We couldn’t be any more blessed with this community and how they have welcomed us. We are now at 5 stores in less than 5 years (Farragut, Bearden, Maryville, and two in Chattanooga) with the first Clean Eatz to be in a hospital to serve Parkridge Medical Hospital in Chattanooga.
We love what we do & every day we get to bless people!! We have the privilege of seeing people lose massive amounts of weight, gain time with their families, take less medication (even completely off medications) due to better nutrition, save money, gain confidence in themselves, find community and friendships and watch our team members grow in their positions.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
My wife and daughter moved here before I did so I could stay back and finish out my job and close on our house.
We had several months before we found our first spot and renovated it into what it is now. We were told about how much it would cost to open one. Boy was we wrong!! After getting into the demo and finding additional costs that we didn’t think about initially, we came up with $50,000 short and I didn’t have a job so banks wouldn’t give me a loan.
We made it happen but man it was some sleepless nights.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
Our concept is healthy eating and portion control. We use lean meats, fresh vegetables, healthy carbohydrates, and no added sodium or oils to our meals. We make everything in-house.
We have about 60-100 different Grab and Go meals that we make fresh and freeze that change daily. We also have a cafe menu that is made-to-order for dine-in or carry-out. The bulk of our business is our fresh meal plans. We come up with a new meal plan every Thursday with 6 items on it.
Our guests can pick and choose how many they need to get them through the workweek and have until Sunday at midnight to order online. We will make everything fresh over the weekend and our guest picks up their meals every Monday.
How do you define success?
Success is making meaningful contributions to the community that we serve, nurturing high-quality, balanced lives for our employees with honesty and integrity & just “taking care of people.”
Pricing:
- You can get our meal plans at low as $6.52 each.
Contact Info:
- Email: gartrell@cleaneatz.com
- Website: www.cleaneatz.com
- Instagram: @cleaneatzknoxvillebearden, @cleaneatzknoxville, @cleaneatzmaryville, and @cleaneatzchattanooga
- Facebook: @cleaneatzknoxvillefarragut, @cleaneatzknoxvillebearden, @cleaneatzmaryville, and @cleaneatzchattanooga
