Jess Rogers will open Blonde Shallot at 471 Prospect Ave. Jan 6., 2020.
Photo by Amy Byrnes
LITTLE SILVER – A local entrepreneur who has made a name for herself with dinner deliveries has put down anchor in the downtown and will feature freshly made soups, salads, bowls and order-ahead dinners.
Borough resident Jess Rogers has announced she will open the doors of The Blonde Shallot at 471 Prospect Ave. Jan. 6 with an expanded daily lunch and dinner menu.
“People have been asking for years when we were going to open a retail location, but it had to be the perfect spot,” she said. The store will be located next to a busy nail salon and bagel shop.
Rogers launched The Blonde Shallot in 2015, providing healthy, homemade meals to private clients from a rented professional kitchen. Her business began as a dinner delivery service. “My idea was to provide a service that delivered freshly made dinners to your door,” she explained. “Let’s face it, you can’t have pizza every night.”
As her clientele grew, so did her menu, and she soon expanded with a lunchtime signature salad line, featuring Kale Caesar, Charlie Bird (farro and arugula), and Buffalo Chicken finished with a drizzle of Frank’s Hot Sauce. The salads are now sold in Sickles Market in Little Silver, as well as Freshicas and Pilates Blast, both in Red Bank.
The retail store will be stocked with salads and bowls customers can come in to grab and take home. The plan is to offer busy customers full on- the-go dinners a few days a week, which had previously been available exclusively to private clientele.
Some of her recent dinner items included Ramen Stir Fry with vegetables, Honey Jalapeño Flank Steak Tacos and Chicken Murphy. There are often gluten-free options and always kid-friendly choices (plenty of buttered noodles and ground beef tacos).
“I know what it’s like to come home after a long day and have no plans for dinner,” said the mom of three kids, all under 11 years old. “It can be totally overwhelming.”
This article originally appeared in the Jan. 2-8, 2020 print edition of The Two River Times.
