meet the team

STRAIGHT FACTS:

• current food related nostalgia: pizza every single friday from the gas station/sub shop up the street (where you could also rent a movie) - always the same toppings: pepperoni, sausage, mushroom, black olive, oregano

• favorite food to make: something about a meal thrown together from a combination of pantry + produce randomness fueled by someone saying “we don’t have any food in the house”

• death row meal: bottomless buttered popcorn, an overdressed caesar salad with extra croutons, a big bowl fettuccini alfredo, and no more than 3 filthy vodka martinis

• current drink orders: iced americano w/ extra ice + 1 pump of caramel, 1/2 lemonade 1/2 sweet tea, fountain coke with extra ice, tequila shot + a mexican beer, filthy vodka martini

• dessert? whoops, i don’t like sweets but lately i’ve been feeling an affogato or anything tart/lemony

a note from Della Bennett

founder / executive chef / creative director

My first food memory was eating a tomato straight off the vine - ripened by the sun, warm to the touch, and filled with an unforgettable juiciness. I’ve chased that curiosity for food my whole life. Always helping my mom around the kitchen, pretending to be on a cooking show, working in kitchens off + on throughout my teens + twenties. I never had a clear vision on what my career would look like or where I’d end up but I did find a way to weave food into just about every single job, hobby, and memory. My first real job was dishwashing at a tiny barbecue joint in the middle of nowhere (Goochland, VA) when I was fourteen. Since then, there have been wing joints, and steak houses, and even a chocolate covered fruit florist sitiation. I’ve always been more comfortable heading right past the hostess stand or front counter and nuzzling up to the kitchen. I love the cool chaos of a kitchen; the banging + clanging of pots + pans, the heat, the rush. But also it’s calming clean lines, smooth stainless steel, the labels + organization, the unrelenting requirement for efficiency, the methodical repetition and attention to detail required, and the comfort in knowing that after a quick scrub and hot sanitizer towel, you can put it all to bed and fire it up again tomorrow.

TLDR; I started Plenty with the intention of helping my community grow and thrive by providing those around me with more time to do what they love, with who they love, through food.

After landing myself a nanny gig in the fall of 2012, I started to follow the curiosities within that ecosystem. I loved packing lunches + snacks, running errands (especially grocery shopping + organizing the pantry), doing crafts + baking with the kids, and eventually, after several years with the same kids, I began preparing meals for the whole family. I pitched this at first as a way to fill my workday with additional hours within the same household instead of piecing together a handful of other gigs to make ends meet. Little did I know this would be the beginning of Plenty as I began to see how a fridge stocked full of prepared meals not only nourished the individual, but also the family as a unit, and even further so, the community surrounding us all. The routine was always the same: the kids coming home after school, activities, sports, and sleepovers, and the busy working parents coming home after a long day of making decisions. The first stop for all of them? The kitchen. More specifically, the fridge. And somewhere along the way, the notion that a simple home cooked meal waiting in the fridge or on the counter, could provide such comfort + peace of mind for everyone around the dinner table truly sparked something in me. And I ran with it.

Fast forward…

One family’s kitchen turned into traveling around to a few different homes, and then I moved the whole operation into my home kitchen with my first employee, and then into my first official shared commercial kitchen space in the fall of 2019 with a small crew. Each step along the way has been documented and captured, the good and the bad, and every leg of the journey has been so beautiful and so necessary. With the addition of online ordering just before an actual global pandemic, we quickly outgrew the shared space and began to settle into the idea of a space of our own where we currently call the Plenty Kitchen. What was once a delivery based business has grown into a cutie little retail shop that’s open 5 days a week, bustling as ever, with local deliveries, and walk-in customers, and a happy little sunny ass kitchen space that I could have never dreamed of - ALL this with the relentless support from the best and most sincere and enthusiastic customers in the world and a bitchin’ network of fans, followers, farmers, family and friends to boot. This space I’ve carved out in keeps me filled with gratitude, energized by the impact of the work we do, and continues to remind me of my mission to nourish the community around me. Thank you for being here. xo.

STRAIGHT FACTS:

• current food related nostalgia: tuna noodles with potato chips on top, little debbie snacks in my lunchbox, mom’s texas sheet cake, and my dad’s homemade pizza

• favorite food to make: taco night is my go-to. and I like building a variety of salads.

• death row meal: lots of margaritas, a table full of nachos, mint chocolate chip ice cream.

• current drink orders: into Hike hopped seltzer these days, a white negroni, dirty martini, or margarita, and iced coffee

• dessert? ice cream. candy. cake. cookies. sweet tooth over here.

STRAIGHT FACTS:

• current food related nostalgia:

• favorite food to make:

• death row meal:

• current drink orders: 

• dessert?

KT Ehrlich

co-founder / director of operations

Behind the scenes, KT has always been a vital part of Plenty but on paper, she was my second ever employee. What started as a casual helping hand as my partner, turned into a more robust and holistic position within the company. KT has her hands and eyes on every piece of the business. While she leaves the big picture visionary piece to me, she is the boots on the ground, get shit done mentality. She handles everything from payroll + hiring to building lasagnas + chicken salad. She contributes at every level: from executive level brainstorming + business strategy, to delivering top notch customer service and seamless logistics. She also played a huge role in securing and designing the kitchen space as well as taking on the responsibility of full time contractor throughout the entire build out process.

Aside from Plenty, KT is an internationally collected and recognized glassblower with a focus on sculpting, sandblasting, and intricate surface design. Her work can be found in stores + galleries across the country, as well as right here in the Plenty shop.

Coming soon…

Ashley Zolezzi (finance / analytics / weekly logistics)

Jake Nesmith

Melissa

Kylie

Christopher