Have you ever craved a home-cooked meal but didn’t have the time to prepare it? For many busy parents, entrepreneurs and elderly caretakers, this is often the case.
In 2012, the owners of Ingle Eats found the solution to hungry locals’ problems. Shannon Countryman and Joan Chastain started Ingle Eats, a food take-out and delivery business that offers frozen and ready-to-serve home-cooked meals, desserts, snacks and baked goods.
The former stay-at-home mothers saw a void in the amount of families gathering together for hearty meals and wanted to bring back a sense of fun around food.
|
|
|
“We wanted people to come to the table, without a styrofoam box, but with a meal that had some preparation at home,” Chastain says. “Food brings people together. It creates a community feeling.”
If you’re like some of us at 225 Dine, you may be wondering, “Why haven’t I heard of them before?” Until 2017, Ingle Eats shared updates on their weekly menus exclusively through email. Countryman and Chastain would send an email to less than 10 of their friends that included the meal of the week, how many people it served and the price. As they received confirmations from their customers, Chastain would tally up orders on a sheet of paper. As word of mouth spread through their church, friends and the Mid City neighborhood, the volume of orders started to increase.
Since then, Ingle Eats has switched to an online model where customers can view the weekly menu, daily offerings and place orders. Locals can purchase frozen meals, a la carte items like homemade salad dressings, DIY kits such as salads or rice bowls, breakfast and baked goods and freezer-friendly meals that are ready-to-serve or can be saved for later.
Countryman and Chastain cook all the food with the help of a small team of student workers. The Louisiana natives are self-taught home cooks that kept recipes passed down from their families and incorporated meaningful childhood experiences into their menu offerings. Ingle Eats makes everything from Lebanese to Chinese food. This week’s menu, for example, features veggie burgers on brioche bread, Cajun-stuffed bell peppers and lamb ragu with turmeric rice and labneh (a type of thick yogurt).
“We don’t want people to get bored and we don’t want to be bored with our food, so every week is something different,” Countryman says.
|
|
|
Ingle Eats shares its new menu for the week every Monday on its website. On Thursdays, staff deliver the meals, or locals can pick up their orders from 2-6 p.m. at the Ingle Eats commercial kitchen. They offer delivery to residents within the 70806, 70808 and Bocage area for a $5 fee, or free delivery for their standing customers who purchase meals at least once a month.
Locals can also purchase select Ingle Eats goods at both The Royal Standard boutiques and the Red Stick Farmers Market downtown. In the future, Ingle Eats plans to start offering intimate dinner experiences at its commercial kitchen.
Ingle Eats is at 625 South Acadian Thruway. Subscribe to the mailing list for updates.