ANEU Kitchens is opening an expansive food and wellness space in Chester County
The business will offer prepared foods, cooking classes, education, and more.
For more than 30 years, Meridith Coyle has been focused on making comfort food healthier through ANEU Kitchens. This fall, she’ll be opening her most ambitious venture yet: an extensive food and wellness space that offers ANEU’s signature grab-and-go meals, plus a variety of wellness offerings — from yoga to cooking classes to educational lectures.
The business, an expansive 20,000-square-foot space located in the Eagle Yards Corporate Center’s west campus in Tredyffrin Township, will serve as a way to “get good nutrition into people’s hands conveniently, and at the best price possible,” Coyle said.
Her latest undertaking is a culmination (and a “validation”) of her decades working in food and wellness. It will be the largest brick-and-mortar spot for the brand, which has Pennsylvania locations in Paoli and Bryn Mawr, with two more coming in Valley Forge and Ardmore. ANEU also operates two Jersey shore locales, in Margate and Ocean City.
Between its storefronts, home catering, and selling its goods in several other retailers (Martindale’s Natural Market, Organnons Natural Market, and local gyms), ANEU was outgrowing its space, Coyle said. When the Wayne location became available — not far from Coyle’s home — she saw the potential to make a community-based place.
“We just don’t have anything like this,” Coyle said, standing inside what she plans to turn into a tranquil, bright spot. “We’re going to keep the integrity here, so you can trust if your young baby is running around grabbing things, what they grab has integrity.”
The business will be “food forward,” with a health food store offering prepared meals for purchase, or allowing customers to dine in. Everything will be made from scratch in the production kitchen on site, down to the mayonnaise and the bread, as it is across ANEU Kitchens. There are no additives or preservatives, and a majority of the food uses no seed oils.
A customer could come in and pick up one of the prepared meals, but also some roasted vegetables, a cut of wild salmon, or a chicken breast from local farms to throw on the grill, Coyle said. They can grab a coffee, or sit at the bar for a glass of wine.
Beyond food, Coyle wants to offer a robust events calendar: cooking classes, where dates can learn how to make health-focused meals for themselves, and an educational center, where an herbalist can teach an audience about herbs, or a clinical nutritionist can lecture on digestion. Sound bath sessions, yoga classes, or activities focused on meditation and journaling will round out the schedule. She said she wants to cultivate a peaceful, beautiful space that can host catered bridal or baby showers, or company retreats.
Coyle, 58, first started her foray with food as a kid, helping her parents with their Berwyn restaurant, Binni and Flynn’s. It began her love for the service industry, which reignited when she came home to help with her father’s shop after he became sick. She became passionate about recipe development and whole foods, which has become the focal point of her work. She founded ANEU about three decades ago, with a goal of making comfort food healthy.
But the mission has grown, seeking to appeal to those like her: people who want to “recharge” through nutrition and movement, and those more like her boyfriend, who want to eat something fried.
Coyle said about 500 people stopped by during their groundbreaking in early May to learn about the business.
She feels like the demographic in Chester County, and nearby King of Prussia, could be a match.
Every year, Coyle goes to a wellness retreat. She wakes up, does her sun salutations, goes on a hike, eats good food, and takes a class. From that four-day experience, she gets “about six months of calm” in her body. At the six-month mark, she finds herself itching for that sense again.
“I was like, well, if I’m having a problem, everybody else is,” Coyle said. “That’s kind of what we’re creating with this space.”
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