ELYA's red-eye oats are soaked in Blanchard's coffee and topped with peanut butter and cacao nibs.
Later, candy bars and chips, hello, fresh-made salads and red-eye rolled oats made with local coffee. Maryland native Danny Sterling, founder of ELYA — Eat Like Your Ancestors — is reinventing the typical vending machine experience with a more local, health-conscious approach. In October, the 29-year-old debuted the natural food service company at 7 E. Third St. in the former Plant Zero Cafe space in Manchester. From 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday, customers can access the contents of the refrigerated vending machine with the swipe of a credit card.
Richmond magazine: How did the idea for ELYA come to fruition?
ELYA owner Danny Sterling and the company's grab-and-go fridge
Danny Sterling: Before COVID, we would go to businesses that don’t have cafeterias and provide food service. I wanted to get into mass food service. I’ve been a chef for 15 years, and it’s never viewed as glamorous to work in a school or hospitals or anything like that, but I was thinking, “How do I get into that market?”
RM: Even with the grab-and-go format, you use ingredients from local farms. Why is that so important?
Sterling: A major part of our mission is to provide greater access to high-quality food while supporting local food systems. Typically, local, smaller-scale farmers focus on soil health, crop rotation and humane treatment of animals. All of our food is sourced thoughtfully and intentionally. Rather than choosing premade, processed items for convenience or a lower price point, we use unprocessed, whole ingredients because we want to nourish our community.
RM: What are a few of the crowd favorite items so far?
Sterling: Our best seller is the Mediterranean bowl, but guests seem to get the most excited about the beef bulgogi and the mushroom burger. We just released the chicken bacon ranch bowl, and it has been selling out daily. As for new items, we will debut a breakfast bowl and are developing a drink program — kombucha, coffee, pressed juices.
ELYA’s “Broad Street Bully” bowl features Autumn Olive Farms braised pork shoulder, sweet potato salad, veggies and a creamy chipotle coleslaw.
RM: What can we find you doing in your free time?
Sterling: I like to spend my time running or biking along the river and sitting on the front porch drinking coffee with my wife and our dog, Coco.
RM: The music playing inside ELYA right now is pretty solid. Who are some of your favorite artists?
Sterling: You don't know how big of a compliment that is to me! If you ask Spotify, it is J. Cole, Drake, Toro y Moi, Action Bronso, and Bon Iver, in that order. However, I really like to make playlists for every season of life.
RM: What does the future of ELYA look like?
Sterling: Our focus is to get as many fridges out in Richmond [as possible] to increase accessibility to our community. After that, we have our eyes on a few other cities along the East Coast. The other facet of our company is providing food service management. I hope to grow this in tandem with the ELYAFridge program. Long term, I would like to work with hospitals, schools, businesses, etc. to help them revolutionize their food service offerings and move toward a more sustainable model.
