Brandi Marter, baker-in-chief at YoLo’s Midtown location, whips up decadent cakes, cupcakes, and gelato cakes from scratch every day, and she doesn’t eat a bite of it. She’s more enticed by the pulled pork, chicken wings, and smoked brisket she prepares for her Paleo food business, Bedrock Eats and Sweets.
Okay, sure, maybe Marter tastes a smidge of cupcake here and there, but aside from the occasional nibble, she eschews any processed flours and sugars. Marter ascribes to the Paleo diet, informally dubbed the “caveman diet,” and avoids most food items that wouldn’t have been part of the everyday diet of our prehistoric progenitors. To help fellow Paleo dieters, Marter has started Bedrock Eats and Sweets, which provides to-go meals and prepared foods in bulk, including Paleo-friendly baked goods and sweets.
“There’s no fast food for us,” she says. “The owner of YoLo, Taylor Berger, came to me, and we talked about doing something Paleo because he realized there was nobody around who was providing prepared meals or grab-and-go options for Paleos.”
Marter focuses less on staying true to “what cavemen ate” and more on eliminating foods that cause inflammation — foods, she says, like peanut butter, wheat, and dairy products. However, the prepared foods she makes for Bedrock Eats and Sweets are strictly Paleo, for her diehard Paleo customers.
On Mondays, Marter posts a menu for the following week, featuring one lunch and one dinner entrée for each day. Anyone interested in pre-ordering Paleo meals can select a meal they’d like to order — for instance, Tuesday’s smoked sausage with bell peppers and onions and whipped sweet potatoes — purchase it online by Friday for $12.50 per meal, and pick it up the following week on the scheduled day.
Each meal comes with 8 ounces of protein and is made fresh that morning and delivered to one of the area YoLo locations or Crossfit gyms for pick-up anytime between noon and 7 p.m. Advance ordering is required because Marter buys much of the meat and organic produce locally, usually at one of the Saturday-morning farmers markets around town.
Marter also prepares various grab-and-go items, such as her smoked chicken salad and her banana pudding, for customers who don’t pre-order their meals. Bulk batches of these items are also available for pre-order.
“We wanted to make sure that people weren’t shying away from the diet because the amount of prep work they had to do was overwhelming,” Marter says. “This way, they have a way to swing by and pick up a meal that’s ready to go and they don’t even have to think about it.”
Bedrock Eats and Sweets, www.bedrockeatsandsweets.com (409-6433)
The story of Stacey Fields’ Southern cooking delivery service begins as much of the best Southern cooking does — at church.
“It started mainly with her church members,” says Kenneth Durham, Fields’ cousin and marketing coordinator for Stacey’s Southern Cookin’. “They’d say, ‘Oh, cook something for us’ or ‘Cook something for Papa Joe.’ From there, it expanded to doing business with local churches, and then about a year ago she got serious about it. She feels Memphis really lacks a way to get good Southern seafood, so the concept is to bring that directly to people’s homes and offices.”
Fields cooks out of her certified home kitchen, where she whips up her seafood pot pie, made with a flaky bread crust and shrimp, crab, or a seafood medley and the customer’s choice of vegetables. While this specialty rings in at $15, all other entrées go for $10 a piece, including baked Tilapia, fried catfish, and pan-fried Buffalo fish. For a couple extra dollars, the side options include the standard coleslaw and French fries but also include spaghetti and stuffed peppers.
Currently, Stacey’s Southern Cookin’ accepts online orders and orders over the phone. She delivers for free within a 25-mile radius but only from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. Friday through Sunday. There is a minimum order of $30 for delivery. Eventually, Fields hopes to expand into Mississippi and Arkansas and do deliveries seven days a week. For now, she’s focusing on building her customer base and spreading the gospel of Southern seafood that has long been a part of her family.
“All the recipes are from her great-grandfather, passed on to her grandmother, passed on to her mother, passed on to her,” Durham says. “Her family has been in the food industry for generations.”
Stacey’s Southern Cookin’, www.staceyssoutherncookin.com (281-0368)
