In the Know: Yana Eats delivers new concept to Naples

The couple formerly behind La Colmar Bakery & Bistro are delivering a fresh concept to Naples.

This month the husband-and-wife team of Yannick and Ana Brendel launched Yana Eats, a local eatery, takeout and meal delivery service in the former space of A Taste of Jersey Italian Deli. Their cafe opened Sept. 10 in Sea Breeze Plaza on the corner of U.S. 41 and Creech Road, but the delivery service just launched this week.

The goal of Yana Eats is to provide a quality option for busy folks who don’t want to go out for dinner, but they also don’t necessarily want to cook at home. Their new venture creating family-style dishes for delivery is a bit of a departure from their last undertaking.

The Brendels launched La Colmar bakery in August 2017 alongside Timeless restaurant on U.S. 41 in Naples. After putting their heart and soul into the local business, the Brendels split in February with silent partner Ed Mullen, the majority owner of La Colmar, following a difference of opinion. The Brendels lost their personal and professional investment in the venue named after the small town in France where Yannick grew up.

“Everything happens for a reason,” Brendel said.

The Brendels moved on, merging their first names to create a new venue in which to invest their heart and soul. They found a tiny storefront near home that previously was A Taste of Jersey, which closed this summer after a three-year run. The Lunch Bucket had previously operated there for 13 years.

Their new concept stems from a family issue they often face at home with their three children. Sometimes its dinnertime but they don’t have time to cook and they want something more nutritious than fast food or pizza delivery.

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“Sometimes there’s no time to cook every day, but you sure have to eat every day. So, that’s where we come in. We cook, we pack, you have the food,” Yannick Brendel said. “We wanted something like that for ourselves but couldn’t find it. So, we decided to do it.”

Many hours of work and even generations of preparation are behind the food. They are using their grandmother’s recipes, cooking and simmering sauces all morning. With a lot of attention to detail and without shortcuts, they are following family recipes to make wholesome dishes and flavorful comfort foods the way they used to be made.

“So, the way our grandmothers made the recipe, we will create the same food, home cooking," Brendel said. "If it takes six hours to make the sauce, it takes six hours to make the sauce to get all the flavor of the meats, the herbs, and you end up with cooking like home food, the best mouthful you can get.”

Sharing their love and especially their love of food with the community is truly what it’s all about for the Brendels. Their relationship was forged on food.

Yannick and Ana met more than a dozen years ago while they both were dining at a South Beach restaurant. Yannick didn’t speak English then, so they initially communicated by cooking for each other.

“That’s how the journey started. We found out that we liked the same thing. We love food,” Ana Brendel said.

“We were talking through the food and sharing experiences through the food,” Yannick Brendel said. “Now we want to share this.”

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They have found a way they can live and work together all day. They clearly enjoy what they are doing.

“It’s so much fun. I couldn’t ask for anything more,” Yannick Brendel said. “The reason we’re doing this is because the love of food is something everybody has. There’s a connection between love and food, and that’s what we want to share – our love and our passion through the food and through the food our grandmothers passed along to us.”

Although Yannick is French and Ana is from the Dominican Republic their culinary roots are not so different because of a melting pot of international influences. They realized some of the dishes their grandmothers made were similar except for a few ingredients.

“It’s very interesting because we want to provide what we do at home for other people,” Ana Brendel said. “The funny part is we wanted it for us but now we’re here in the kitchen.”

An entire wall of Yana Eats dining area is painted with a colorful “mother of all murals” honoring women. At the top of the family tree are Yannick and Ana’s inspirational family matriarchs, Grandma Léonie and Grandma La-La, respectively. Branches of the tree mural feature other diverse, historic and strong women leaders such as Joan of Arc, Amelia Earhart, Princess Diana, Sacagawea, Mother Teresa and Harriet Tubman.

Starting as a need to decorate a blank wall, Ana Brendel knew what she wanted to see there.

“I wanted a mural of wonderful women who have inspired different generations through history,” she said. “The portraits have that mother touch, that feeling of care and comfort and warmth. And that’s what we want to do. And that’s what we do with our food, so this was our theme.”

Grandma Léonie’s influence is noticeable in the distinct savory taste of Mama Mariette’s Meatloaf, a recipe handed down from Yannick’s great-grandmother to his grandmother to his mother and finally to him. With roots in northeastern France, the classic dish is served with garlic roasted potatoes and French green beans along with a mushroom forestiere sauce gravy.

Grandma La-La’s influence is apparent in sancocho – a Dominican stew with beef, pork, yucca, yams and green plantains. Stewed for hours and thickened with pumpkin and carrot puree, the dish is served over steamed white rice. The comforting creation is reminiscent of a thick chicken soup.

“We are so happy to be able to share this,” Yannick Brendel said.

The menu will retain a stable of popular dishes while a few new ones will be introduced each week. The inaugural menu ranges from $3.25 for empanadas to $18.25 for salmon in garlic lemon butter sauce served with steamed white rice and a tomato and cucumber Mediterranean salad.

Other main dishes with a variety of international flavors include black bean sage-roasted butternut quesadillas, shrimp in coconut curry sauce, Cuban mojo roasted chicken and Italian-American meatballs. Other items feature Yana’s chicken salad, herb-roasted vegetables, seared tuna Nicoise with farro, cumin-fried chickpea Greek salad, and guacamole and pico de gallo.

Sweets and baked goods include chocolate babka, apple turnovers, chocolate chip cookies, ciabatta bread and chocolate-drizzled croissants.

The café has counter service and 16 seats, but the majority of its business is expected to be takeout and delivery. Yana Eats delivers its old-fashioned dishes with the help of new-fangled technology and an e-commerce site at YanaEats.com.

“You go on the website and it’s so easy to just click on the picture and place your order,” Yannick Brendel said.

The initial delivery area is mainly to residences and businesses in the city of Naples, plus the North Naples communities of Naples Park and Pelican Bay. The delivery area to ZIP codes 34102, 34103 and 34108 stretches from Port Royal to Immokalee Road and from the Gulf to Goodlette-Frank Road.

Yana Eats, 3050 U.S. 41 N., Suite 923, is open 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Friday. Although the restaurant closes at 6 p.m., the delivery service runs until 8 p.m. weekdays. For more information call 239-384-9957 or go to YanaEats.com.

For the latest in local restaurants coming and going, see Tim Aten’s “In the Know” columns archived at naplesnews.com/intheknow, and on Facebook at facebook.com/timaten.intheknow.

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