NEW ALBANY, Ind. (WDRB) -- A new meal prep service and restaurant celebrated its grand opening with a ribbon-cutting Wednesday in New Albany.
Ready Set Prep’d offers fresh, healthy meals that are ready to grab and go. It started as a hobby in the chef’s kitchen, then turned into a test run at a kitchen incubator and is now settling in to its first brick and mortar location at 1222 State St.
“We just try to keep things fresh and healthy, and we make everything from scratch,” chef and owner Peggy Garbe said.
The menu lists lunch options like salads, wraps and protein bowls. Garbe said the jerk chicken bowl is the best-seller so far. You can order in advance and pick it up, or you can pop inside the shop or use the drive-thru.
However, the meat and potatoes of the business that got everything started is the meal prep service. Ready Set Prep’d offers a rotating weekly menu that you can order multiple meals in advance and pick up for your week.
“So we’re making ready-to-eat healthy meals for people that just don’t have time to cook, don’t want to cook or don’t know how to cook,” Garbe said.
Most of the meals can be modified for gluten-free, dairy-free, low-carb, vegetarian and vegan diets. The meals are healthy, but they’re not lacking flavor. Garbe is classically trained and worked in several local fine dining restaurants before starting her own business.
Ready Set Prep’d
“We just do healthy food in a more elevated way," Garbe said. "So we’re not just giving you chicken and broccoli in a box. We’re giving you steak panzanella salad."
Garbe said she and her husband never expected they’d be busines- owners. He said when she gave birth to their daughter, she needed to find a new balance between working as a chef and her family. And it’s been a process to get to this point. A few years ago, she started sharing pictures on social media of the meals she was preparing at home. Garbe said friends started commenting that they’d pay her to make meals for them. So it started as a hobby in her spare time.
"It just kind of snowballed from doing it on the side and on the weekends after my 9-5 job," he said. "And people would just keep telling their friends. And I'm like, 'I can't make any more meals out of my house!' And then that's kind of when we fell upon Mesa."
For the last two years, Garbe was testing her concept and getting the balls rolling out of MESA, a collaborative kitchen incubator. She said the business really started to take off during the COVID-19 pandemic, when people were trying to find more ready-to-go and contactless meal options.
This new location allows the small business to expand and make hundreds of meals every day.
“I never thought in a million years we would own a business, but it just kind of fell into our laps," Garbe said. "And we want to thank everyone for the support. We’re glad to provide something new and a healthy option for anybody."
On hand for the ribbon-cutting celebration were several local and state officials to welcome the business to the community.
“We’re going to a lot of these ribbon-cuttings recently as more and more businesses are getting started," U.S. Congressman Trey Hollingsworth said. "And I think that’s a great sign for our economy."
Ready Set Prep’d is open Wednesday through Sunday. Customers can also make orders online.
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