CHEYENNE — Gary Shaklee has worked as an undercover detective, for the SWAT team and as an instructor for a defensive tactics team. Now, he runs a restaurant.
Clean Eatz is a little bit different from most eateries, though. All their food is made without any added salt or oils and can accommodate most dietary restrictions.
It’s also not just a place to sit down and order food, although you can do that there, too. They also offer more than 60 different frozen pre-made meals, weekly preprepared meal pickups, event catering and even merchandise and original protein powder.
Shaklee’s Clean Eatz is the 95th location in the country and the first in Wyoming. He was inspired to open his own after frequenting a location in Colorado and recognizing the need for healthy, quick meal options in Cheyenne.
“I just fell in love with the concept from the first time I walked in,” he said. “Almost two years ago, I walked into the Johnstown location, and I loved the color scheme, I loved everything about it. It made me feel calm and comfortable being in there. And then, as I started exploring the nutritional side of it, it was exactly what I was looking for.”
After 28 years working for the Fort Collins Police Department, Shaklee was looking for something new to take on but wanted to continue to serve his community.
“When Clean Eatz came about, I felt that was my next way to provide service to another community — by providing healthy, affordable, clean food options.”
The Cheyenne location has only been open since August, but he already hopes to open more locations in the state in the near future.
For Shaklee, it’s less about making money and more about contributing to the community.
“I’m way more about the people than the profits. I worked a career,” he said. “I still need to pay the rent, and I need to make a living. I didn’t get into this just for philanthropic purposes. But that’s what drives me every day, just the interactions with our customers and with my employees. It’s my job to take care of them.”
As the owner, he wears lots of hats in the restaurant. Sometimes he’ll wash dishes, other times he’ll be building meals or restocking the “grab-n-go” meals in the fridge. But he said he thrives most when interacting with the customers.
He and his wife have always been into fitness, and he enjoys meeting new people from different walks of life and hearing about their fitness journey.
There isn’t a target audience for Clean Eatz. Shaklee just wants to serve anyone looking for healthy meal options.
“Eating healthy and clean food is for everybody, right? It doesn’t discriminate. So that’s the fun part for us, just seeing the variety of customers that come in, and we have something for everybody,” he said.
In the four months the restaurant has been open near the Blue Federal Credit Union World Headquarters, Shaklee said business has been going better than expected. Not just in terms of numbers, but also in the community he has created at the restaurant.
“I feel like I was put on this earth to serve in some form. I did that very happily for almost 28 years, and I was looking for a chance to serve again,” Shaklee said. “And when I decided to dive in headfirst into Clean Eatz, even four months in, it was the best decision I ever made.
“This is something I can stand tall in front of, and go ‘Come in, let us show you what we have to offer.’”
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