Prepared Meal Service ‘Yes Chef’ Opening Retail Marketplace at McHenry Row
Prepared meal service Yes Chef is opening a commercial kitchen and retail marketplace at McHenry Row in Locust Point. It fills a 1,700 sq. ft. retail space formerly occupied by The Urban Oyster.
Yes Chef currently has a 1,700 sq. ft. office space in the Banner Building of McHenry Row, which it will keep, and uses ShareKitchen in the Banner Building for its commercial kitchen. Yes Chef will leave ShareKitchen when its new commercial kitchen is up and running in September. The retail portion of the operation, called The Yes Chef Local Marketplace, is expected to open on October 1st.
Yes Chef was started by husband and wife Chef Clint Roze and Jodi Roze. Both are hospitality industry veteran teachers of the culinary arts. The company was started in November 2019 out of ShareKitchen.
Yes Chef delivers prepared meals that can be reheated at home and also caters events. Yes Chef has been steadily growing and the company now prepares 450 to 700 meals a week.
Looking for a commercial kitchen of their own to handle increasing business, the Rozes contacted their McHenry Row landlord 28 Walker. The team at 28 Walker let them know about the former The Urban Oyster space and the two groups quickly got a deal done. While the retail space gives Yes Chef room for a commercial kitchen, the Rozes started brainstorming ways to also activate a retail store front.
The Yes Chef Local Marketplace, which will occupy 300 sq. ft., will have grab-and-go and heat-and-eat meals available to customers. Chef Roze said he expects there to be 12 to 20 different meals available each day. The marketplace will also support Baltimore- and Maryland-only small businesses. It will sell MFG Toffee & Bark, Popsations popcorn, Mouth Party Caramel, Taharka ice cream, HEX Ferments, and other to-be-named companies serving coffee, chocolate, and sauces. All of the different items can be prepared as gift boxes.
The marketplace will be open Monday to Friday from 11am to 7pm and Saturday from 9am to 5pm.
The Rozes hope The Yes Chef Local Marketplace will be an asset to the residents, workers, hotel guests, and visitors of McHenry Row. They also noted looking forward to meeting their customers face-to-face following an era of contact-free deliveries.
The Yes Chef prepared menu features seasonal items and weekly specials, including keto, gluten-free, vegetarian, and vegan options. It also has a kids menu.
Menu items include salads; proteins such as grilled chicken, seared salmon, slow-cooked pork, and shrimp; and different bowls with noodles, rice, and veggies.
Yes Chef offers free delivery to anyone in the 21230 zip code and also delivers to parts of Anne Arundel, Howard, and Baltimore counties.
Yes Chef donates 10 percent of its proceeds from orders by Francis Scott Key Elementary Middle School families back to the PTA. It also has a quarterly CARES Campaign where the company delivers free meals to nominated families and individuals for six weeks of each quarter. This quarter is teachers and daycare providers. Yes Chef always offers a 10 percent discount for veterans.
The team at Yes Chef is growing and the Rozes expect to have 12 employees by the time the marketplace opens.
The Rozes have enjoyed growing Yes Chef and said it allows them to work in the hospitality industry on their own terms. They and their team no longer have to work the long hours and nights and weekends associated with restaurants, and they’ve been able to hire a staff full of employees who lost their jobs due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
“It’s really a great group of people,” said Jodi Roze.
Photos below courtesy of Yes Chef
Chef Clint Roze
Jodi Roze
About the Author: Kevin Lynch
Founder and Publisher of SouthBmore.com, longtime resident of South Baltimore, and a graduate of Towson University. Diehard Ravens and O's fan, father of three, amateur pizza chef, skateboarder, and "bar food" foodie. Email me at Kevin@InceptMM.com and follow me on Twitter at @SoBoKevin.
