Brinna Voege might be only 25 years old but this Carmel High School graduate has about 10 years of experience in the food service industry. More importantly, she knows she’s got a great concept: a quick-service healthy food option where customers can customize bowls of rice, fish, vegetables and sauce.
Voege met her future business partner David Tang at Vitality Bowls, where Voege worked. She was attending a training session in California and while she was there she found herself eating the Hawaiian raw tuna salad called poke, pronounced “poh-kay.”
“Basically I ate poke the whole time,” she said. “It made perfect sense to bring this idea back to Indiana.
Voege is shooting for a May opening for her space at 110 W. Main St., Suite 106 next to Kiss Kiss Bang Bang hair salon in Carmel.
She describes it as a similar set up to Chipotle. Customers start off by choosing a bowl of sushi rice, brown rice or spring mix salad and then adding a certain type of fish, which can include shrimp, eel, salmon, ahi tuna and others. You can add vegetables such as tofu, avocado, carrots, cucumber, green onions, corn, peppers or others and dress it with a sauce such as a soy sauce, a spicy mayonnaise, a hot sauce and a sweet sauce. Other toppings can be added such as fried onions or Asian noodles.
Voege said it’s the perfect way to eat healthy but also have something that tastes great.
“I think the new trend will be people eating healthier,” she said.
Voege said so many people say they want to eat healthy but find themselves going through a drive-thru because it’s quick and convenient but she said Main Street Poke will be an efficient way to get lunch quickly and eat healthy.
“It really only takes as long to make it as it take for you to decide what you want,” she said.
If it’s successful, Voege said a location could open in Fishers.
Main Street Poke is also currently hiring employees and applicants can apply in person at the location on Main Street.
