Mid City’s new healthy option restaurant to have soft opening next week
Triumph Kitchen has a new home.
The nonprofit food service headed by Chris and Sommer Wadsworth will now work out of the kitchen of Modern Meals, a Mid City restaurant that offers healthy breakfast, lunch and dinner options for on-the-go patrons. Chris Wadsworth says the move to Modern Meals comes after leaving the Family Youth Service Center on Government Street about a month and a half ago. Before that, Triumph Kitchen was briefly based downtown.
“We couldn’t afford to stay [at Family Youth Service Center],” Wadsworth says. “We needed the public to be able to get to us and for it to be convenient. This [move] was a way for [students] to get into the daily operations of a place. They will be dealing with prep sheets, recipes … it’s real life experience.”
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Modern Meals (2921 Government St.) is set to host a soft opening next Tuesday, Feb. 17, through Friday, Feb. 20, with a limited menu. The restaurant will open fully Monday, Feb. 23. Business hours will be 7 a.m.-7 p.m.
At first, designing a healthier menu for vegans, vegetarians and customers with dietary restraints was a challenge for Wadsworth. However, he and Modern Meals owners Ashley Munnerlyn and Marcy David are excited about the restaurant’s offerings.
“We’re all over the board,” Wadsworth says. “We have a Thai sweet and sour soup, a Tuscan soup. We’re using a lot of fresh, local fish. None of the items are cooked in heavy oils. There is no salt in the building. I had to get extremely creative, extracting all the flavor I could from these items without using salt and pepper.”
Munnerlyn and David got the idea to bring the program into Modern Meals after the restaurant’s kitchen manager left for another opportunity.
“We were in a mad dash rush to find a kitchen manager,” Munnerlyn says. “One thing led to another, and we couldn’t be happier about it. It’s fun to have the kids in here and watch them grow. Part of [Modern Meals’] makeup has been to be a part of the community. We’ve enjoyed everything they’re doing and being a part of that process.”
At Modern Meals, Triumph Kitchen has been contracted to help with daily kitchen operations, but has no ownership in the restaurant. The nonprofit is in the middle of its fourth class and has graduated 30 students, Wadsworth says. With a new kitchen and everyday experience becoming part of the curriculum, the educational nonprofit has downsized classes from nearly 20 students to classes of 4-5 to focus on quality.
“Before, we had no audience and no pressure,” Wadsworth says. “We might have worked on a recipe, and we had all day to do it. Now, we’re dealing with time constraints, a strict shelf life on products, waste and money management … it’s intense. It’s what we needed.”
Wadsworth also hinted that he is currently looking for real estate for a new restaurant, outside of his work with Triumph Kitchen.
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“[Sommer and I] want to get back in the restaurant game,” he says. “We’re trying to stay in the Mid City area. Hopefully, this time next year, people will be dining with me again.”
For more information on Modern Meals, click here. For more information on Triumph Kitchen, click here.
Editor’s note: This story has been edited since its original posting.