Grab and go healthy food at The Blonde Shallot, opening new location soon in Sea Girt
Picture this: You're on the beach, and it's lunchtime. You reach into your cooler and pull out a big salad of fresh, crunchy vegetables, grilled chicken and scratch-made dressing, or a chicken Caesar wrap.
Later, when it's time for dinner, you stop for a prepared meal of chipotle shrimp with sautéed zucchini and corn, or crab cakes with tartar sauce.
Your food that day came from The Blonde Shallot, a popular Little Silver market opening a second location just a few blocks from the beach in Sea Girt. Owner Jessica Rogers, 46, of Little Silver is taking over the Washington Boulevard storefront recently vacated by Joe Leone's Gastronomia. She hopes to open in mid-April.
"From Day 1, that (area) has been 90% of my requests (for a second store)," Rogers said from the kitchen of her original market, which opened on Prospect Avenue four years ago. "I love the location, I love the size of it."
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Rogers started The Blonde Shallot with the idea of providing healthy food and healthier versions of comfort food for families, the kind of nourishing dishes friends would drop off after her children were born. She was thinking: "I know a lot of women out there that would love this."
She started with a meal delivery business that invited customers to order from emailed menus, then her salads became popular when she made them for friends to enjoy.
"It just showed a need for good grab and go," Rogers said.
At The Blonde Shallot, she models the menu — sandwiches and salads that change seasonally, plus prepared meals and ingredients you can build a meal around — after how she likes to feed her family.
"I want to grab something healthy for me, something basic for the kids, and something comforting for my husband," Rogers said.
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Prepared meals can be dishes like mahi mahi tacos with pickled red onions and slaw; build-your-own fajita platters with seasoned grilled peppers, onions and chicken, cheese, salsa and tortillas; or pesto and prosciutto-wrapped chicken cutlets with roasted tomatoes.
She always has containers of chicken salad, pretzel-crusted chicken nuggets, soup and scratch-made Spaghettios on the shelves, plus items like poached shrimp, falafel and rice and beans.
Comfort food, like roasted eggplant parmesan; chicken, spinach and artichoke lasagna; ramen; and turkey piccata meatballs are "American comfort food like your mom would have put on the table, but a little more elevated, a little cleaner," Rogers said.
"I try to do things you don't want to make yourself. I want it to be the closest to homemade," she said. "It's tasty, it's easy — just easy family meals."
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The new location will be the same concept as the original, with more in terms of add-ons, Rogers said. For example, small charcuterie options customers can pair with purchases from an adjacent liquor store, or a dairy case where weekend visitors can stock up on items like organic milk and chocolate milk, eggs and pork roll.
"It will be a little on the entertaining side, and lots of stocking the fridge," she said. "The possibilities are endless down there."
Go: 471 Prospect Ave., Little Silver; 732-383-5302, theblondeshallot.com. The new market will be at 527 Washington Blvd. in Sea Girt.
Sarah Griesemer joined the USA TODAY NETWORK New Jersey in 2003 and has been writing all things food since 2014. Send restaurant tips to [email protected], follow on Instagram at Jersey Shore Eats and subscribe to our Jersey Shore Eats newsletter.
This article originally appeared on Asbury Park Press: The Blonde Shallot expects second store to open soon in Sea Girt
