'Take and bake' makes meals at home easier

At Depot Street Market, owner Sue Turley (left) packages meals for Sue Clark of Duxbury, who said she stops by frequently to pick up dinner for her family of six. (Photos by Ellen Albanese/Globe staff)

While high-end restaurants may be hurting, some food businesses are actually seeing an upside to our cash-strapped economy. One of them is Depot Street, dubbed by owner Sue Turley "a gourmet take and bake market."

Depot Street prepares a large variety of appetizers, entrees, and side dishes from scratch, packages them to be cooked fresh or frozen, and tries to keep the price between $4 and $5 per person per meal.

Most meals are packaged in two sizes: regular, to serve two or three; and family size, which serves up to six. Customers can stop in to see what's available or order in advance if they want something specific.

Formerly a franchise of Entrée Vous, Depot Street went independent on Jan. 1. Turley said the Entrée Vous system, which invited people to come into the store and help prepare the meals, wasn't working. People today want to save time, she said, so the more she and her staff can do to shorten the preparation time for the customer, the better.

Most recipes come from Entrée Vous, but Turley is adding new ones all the time, from friends, relatives, and customers.

"We taste-test everything first," she said, adding that she often invites customers to weigh in on new recipe ideas. When her assistant manager cooked up some turkey chili recently and offered tastes to customers, the whole batch sold out in a couple of hours. Now it's a regular item.

The overall vibe is New England comfort food, Turley said. Pesto Parmesan chicken - moist chicken breasts coated in crispy, pesto-flavored crumbs that can be cooked from frozen - is the shop's biggest seller. Desserts come from Sugar Plum Bakery in Kingston.

Customers run the gamut, Turley said, from working parents to stay-at-home moms, seniors, and young professionals who stock up on frozen items to take up to the ski lodge for the weekend.

Turley, who has an MBA from the University of Virginia, said she always wanted to own her own business. After working in healthcare management and teaching eighth-grade science, she decided Duxbury needed more options for dinner and launched her culinary career.

Ultimately, she said, "the success we're having is due to relationships." She encourages her staff to interact with customers and she does her part to support community organizations such as sports teams and arts associations. Her customer e-mail list includes more than 1,000 names.

Since the business launched as the Entrée Vous franchise in late 2007, Turley said, there have been only two months in which she didn't at least break even - quite an accomplishment in this economy.

On our visit, we tried chicken marsala, designated a heart-healthy choice with less than 10 grams of fat per serving ($14 for the regular size), beef burgundy ($15 regular), and an artichoke pasta side ($10; all sides are family size).

The chicken breasts were thick and moist. The marsala sauce was thinner than we would have liked, but we figured that was a fair exchange for the lower fat content. The beef burgundy was rich and satisfying, but with an hour of preparation required, it's probably one of the more labor-intensive choices. Many entrees can be cooked from frozen, so it's a good idea to ask for those if you're in a hurry.

The artichoke pasta medley was refreshingly different and easy to prepare. Orzo and wild rice mixed with artichokes, tangy sun-dried tomatoes, carrots, mushrooms, and chopped greens delivered a satisfyingly chewy side dish that seemed to meet both the starch and vegetable requirements of a balanced meal.

With full responsibility for product development, payroll, purchasing, and marketing, Turley said the job continues to challenge her. "I use everything I ever learned in grad school every day."

ELLEN ALBANESE