Photography by Stephen Buchanan
Photography by Stephen Buchanan
Ryan Groll admits he and his wife Emily started their business at a very challenging time in 2015. The Grolls had just bought a house near Easton, their first child was born, and both were at career transition points.
The idea of building their own business began humbly, cooking food out of their house “for people that were very busy” and delivering meals to customers. They found themselves cooking so much that Ryan sold his car to buy and fabricate a food truck in 2016 to grow the business.
Two years later, the Trappe residents opened the first of four cafes, Eat Sprout, in Easton. Locations in St. Michaels and Annapolis followed, including one within the State House that opened earlier this year.
“We saw that people want good, sustainable, nutritious meals while supporting local farmers,” Ryan says. “So, we formed a relationship with local farmers to create healthy meals. I have a background in nutrition. My wife is a fantastic chef. We combined it all, making it affordable and convenient for people. It’s not just food. It’s a lifestyle.”
The cafés offer about 65 different entrees throughout the year with a rotating monthly menu. At the time of this writing, the July menu featured items such as honey pot chicken, herb crusted salmon, roasted squash burger, and falafel mezze bowl.
Eat Sprout also features full-service kitchen and bakery, highlighted by the café’s scratch-made, artisanal breads, signature smash bars, granola, sweet treats, soups, oat bowls, and chef-crafted, hand-bottled drinks.
Eat Sprout’s success and devotion to the community hasn’t gone unnoticed. Talbot County’s Chamber of Commerce named the café Best Small Business of the Year for 2024. The county also gave the business a Community Impact Award.
“For the Community Impact Award, we started a program Farm to Friends,” Ryan explains. “It allowed us to raise $30,000 from the community to purchase food from farmers that were struggling during covid. We gave meals to kids and the elderly who needed the food most.”
We learned more about Eat Sprout during our talk with Ryan.
Photography by Stephen Buchanan
Tell us about your background before opening the café. My background has always been in health and fitness. I used to work at different types of health clubs for about 10 years. My wife was in the Air Force for 10 years. She was part of 99th airlift squadron out of Andrews Air Force Base. She started her career as a communications specialist and was in the government for another four years (Department of Homeland Security). We quit our jobs to help develop a fitness club in Easton, and we moved from Annapolis to the Eastern Shore. I saw it as my way to be an entrepreneur. I was their fitness director. She worked there as a member service specialist.
Why did you decide to open Eat Sprout? We lost our jobs, so we started Sprout. At the end of 2015, I had odds and ends jobs, and one was cooking food for people that were very busy. I was cooking healthy meals and putting them in Tupperware containers and taking them to customer’s homes. They paid me cash. It was enough money to at least pay my bills. I was working from the house until early 2016. We realized we were cooking so much food for so many people that it wasn’t legal from a health department standpoint. It wasn’t sustainable. Then, I sold my car and used that money to buy and build a food truck.
Photography by Stephen Buchanan
Are places like Eat Sprout common? No. Every state I visit, I ask, “Where can I go to get good, local healthy food that is prepared and ready to eat?” Everybody says there isn’t a place. I haven’t found something similar to us. It’s a specific model of restaurant that can’t be replicated very well. I would say we are at the beginning of something new. I think we will see a trend of more people valuing their health, time, and transparency of supporting local farms. They are not going to go to a restaurant three times a day but might come to Eat Sprout and stock up. Customers are buying eight, nine entrees to get themselves through the week.
How would you describe the menu? It’s along the lines of providing a variety of everything you would need every day. We are a market, not a restaurant and do not specialize in a specific cuisine like Italian or French. Our menu has everything from breakfast, lunch, dinner, soups, salads, snacks, wraps, granola, breads, and drinks. We make it all from scratch, including all the sauces, condiments, and drinks.
You have imaginative recipes. How do you come up with them? Our menu changes every month, and the recipes are a combination of brain power from our executive chef and our culinary team down to our customers. We get feedback from our customers on what they want to see and love. We get creative. Every month we rehab our menu to make it better, to make it different, and keep it in season.
What is your top selling item? I would say it’s Vitality—a drink that has local honey, organic ginger, and lemon. It’s very refreshing and versatile. You can drink it as hot tea or cold juice. You mix it with other drinks to make it a “vitality latte.” It’s a very simple but powerful drink that is very good for you from a metabolism and health standpoint. It’s very refreshing and spicy.
Photography by Stephen Buchanan
What other dishes are popular? Peruvian jerk chicken sells very well. It’s a special entrée we make using pasture-raised, local chicken and our own jerk seasoning. We make organic rice that goes on the side along with green cilantro and mojo sauces. It also comes with a scratch-made bean salad with a little cilantro and jalapeno mixed in.
Tell me what the bakery offers. The most popular items, by far, are our organic, artisanal bread varieties and, of course, Buzz Bites. The bites are little energy squares, with a tad of caffeine from organic espresso mixed with local honey, organic oats, peanut butter and chocolate. Our baker is fantastic and talented in the creation of gluten-free products. The Rustic Gluten-free boule we produce won us Best Gluten Free for 2024. It is just all really good stuff. The bakery also produces items like babka, coffee cake, and lemon brownies.
Where do you source your food? We always go local first. If we can’t get something local, then we go organic. Our goal is to know our farmers and where our food comes from. All of our meat, eggs, milk, yogurt, and honey are sourced from Maryland farms along with many other products.
Eat Sprout | Locations in Annapolis, Easton, and St. Michaels | eatsprout.com
