Enquirer: Former UC frat brothers open health-focused café

The Cincinnati Enquirer highlighted two University of Cincinnati alumni and their most recent business venture. Chase Whitehead, UC mechanical engineering ’12 and Brandon Cress, UC industrial design ’05, are former Bearcats turned business partners. The two opened their first Clean Eatz location in 2021. Clean Eatz is a café restaurant that provides healthy dine-in, grab ‘n’ go, and weekly meals to customers. The mission of the company is to promote personal wellness, something Whitehead values greatly.

After graduating from UC and working in industry for a few years, Whitehead opened several Orangetheory Fitness franchises in the Greater Cincinnati area. Cress’s sister was a manager at one of these locations and connected the two when Cress was looking into franchising in the health industry and wanted advice.

Whitehead’s experience with Orangetheory gave him confidence that Clean Eatz would succeed in the area. After being delayed by the pandemic, the two opened their first location in Newport in 2021. Across the nearly 100 Clean Eatz locations nationwide, the Bearcat alumni’s Newport location broke all year-one records. Customers came from neighboring cities to stock up on healthy meals.

“The problem solving, teamwork, and general common sense engrained in me from engineering school has helped me be successful in each of these business ventures,” Whitehead said.

As of this month, their second location on the West side is open and they hope to open a third in the Kenwood area.

Read the Enquirer story. 

Featured Image at top: Clean Eatz owners and UC alumni Chase Whitehead and Brandon Cress opened their second location in Cincinnati's west side in January. Photo/Phil Didion/The Enquirer.