Quotes of the Day
While members at the Alaska Club East, a 108,000-sq.-ft. health club in Anchorage, pound treadmills and pump weights, the kitchen staff at the facility's restaurant is getting a workout of its own. Baker Bil Hess hustles fresh strawberry-carob cookies out of the oven, replacing them with a sugar-free carrot cake. Nearby, chef Vicki Carter grills cuts of wild boar, reindeer hot dogs and other local game. Carter and her crew make about 150 health-conscious but palate-pleasing meals a day. "We serve people in swimsuits next to others in work suits," says Carter. "It's wonderful cooking where people care so much about what they eat."
The Alaska Club is one of thousands of fitness centers that now employ professional chefs who have moved gym food from granola and smoothies to gourmet cuisine. As gyms compete for customers, these in-house restaurants are being seen as amenities that can keep members happy as well as healthy. Since 1992, the number of health clubs with restaurants has nearly doubled, and 11% of the 25,300 clubs in the U.S. have sit-down dining facilities. Many of these upscale food operations have become income generators. John Marchetti, the Alaska Club's business manager, says that since his club upgraded its restaurant last September, it has attracted 150 new members.
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Members old and new seem to appreciate the fancier fare. On a recent Friday, Elise Samuelson, 35, of Anchorage, finished her 40-min. lunch-break workout and then sat down for a lean buffalo burger before heading back to her accounting office. "I like that I can go right in, all sweaty, and eat a nice lunch, not just a salad," says Samuelson. Similarly, Tad Thornton, 26, has made eating at the Lakeshore Athletic Club in Broomfield, Colo., part of his routine. After his swimming and spinning workouts, he ducks into the club's new restaurant for meals like pesto pizza fresh out of chef Marilyn Kretsinger's wood hearth. "I eat here pretty much daily," says Thornton, who is training for his first triathlon. "It's nice having a homemade meal close by when your muscles are depleted."
Eating well after a workout may be more than just a matter of convenience. "There are great physiological benefits to eating within the first half an hour after you've exercised," says Amy Lanou, nutrition director for the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine. "You're replenishing your water, carbohydrates and protein right when that's most essential."
Atkins-friendly, low-carb meals are the bread and butter (so to speak) of most new club restaurants. Ethnic cuisine is catching on too. Typhoon, inside Chicago's Lake Shore Athletic Club, has become such a popular sushi spot that it does great business with both club members and guests who walk in off the street. With a menu that includes healthy versions of such Louisiana favorites as spicy crawfish and Cajun-style gumbo, chef Marc Gilberti serves about 200 diners a day at the Elmwood Fitness Center in New Orleans, earning $100,000 a month for his club. Like many other new health-club chefs, Gilberti, who built his reputation in the kitchens of some of the city's top restaurants, also holds a monthly cooking class at the gym, teaching members how to use whole-wheat grains, cut back on carbs and splurge with fruits to maintain their healthy eating habits at home.
Despite the heightened attention to nutrition, gym menus aren't always ascetic. The Michigan Athletic Club in East Lansing, for example, serves an array of wines alongside such dishes as special reduced-calorie chicken saltimbocca, with skim milk substituting for the sauce's traditional heavy cream. And the Sports Club/LA in New York City serves desserts like fudgy fruit fondue. Still, some sacrifice is required. Mario Oliver, who opened Oliver, a chic restaurant at the Sports Club/LA in Beverly Hills, Calif., in February, laments that gym entrees can't be quite as rich as the French dishes he grew up with in Paris. "When I go out, I want to taste a little salt, sugar, have a platter of cheese and charcuterie ..." he says, trailing off as he recalls feasts of yore. Few of those fatty foods make the cut at his restaurant, but Oliver couldn't resist putting a rich chocolate mousse on the menu. Will gym rats splurge as a post-workout reward? Says Oliver with a shrug: "It's an experiment."
- Jeremy Caplan