BECKLEY, W.Va. (AP) - It's not the scent of sweat and dirty shoes greeting visitors of LA East Fitness Center.
It's not even an air freshener designed to disguise those often unpleasant smells.
Instead, visitors to the facility at the end of Appalachian Drive in Beckley are greeted by something a bit more pleasant.
The enticing aromas of bacon, cinnamon and perhaps sweet potatoes.
"Oh, I've heard it," said owner David Chinn, of the inevitable 'how am I supposed to work out when the building smells like bacon?' question. "But you have to eat. Food is fuel."
The enticing aroma in question wafts ever so gently down from upstairs where Chinn and his wife Cyndie opened Butter It Up! in November.
Opening a restaurant inside a gym might seem a strange concept to some, but Chinn explains Butter It Up! is the perfect fit for someone looking to get healthy.
"There's no sugars and it's all gluten-free," he said. "We use all natural, real ingredients and they're all local. It's not something you buy in a can."
Butter It Up!, Chinn explained, was founded in Huntington by Jeremy Mullins and Andrew Hines - both with connections to nutrition and CrossFit.
Chinn said he and Cyndie were approached about opening a location of their own, but were initially hesitant to take on a third responsibility - they operate CrossFit Beckley as well - but decided to give it a whirl last November.
"We decided to do it here at the gym since we already have the building and pay bills here," he said. "That way, it can keep the overhead down."
The couple already subscribed to the Paleo diet - which Butter It Up! follows - so they were a nice fit for the business model.
"People have said for years that a low-fat diet is the way to go, but they were wrong," he said of Paleo. "We're seeing that now. Fat's good for you. Fat's energy. Think about your grandparents. They lived until they were 90 or 100 and they didn't eat this processed food out here with these chemicals. They ate real food, real bacon and put lard in their food and they were strong and healthy."
Butter It Up!, he explains, is a throwback to those days of natural eating.
The name, he says, comes from the restaurant's signature organic coffee. And instead of using cream, customers are served their cup of Joe with homemade butter.
"They (grandparents) made their butter, so we make our butter," he said. "We make it out of grass-fed heavy whipping cream and we put it in our coffee. It's not margarine, which is killing people. It's real butter."
And there are wide varieties of ways to order a cup, too, as natural brain octane can be added, coconut oil, maple syrup or honey.
"If something needs sweetener, we use maple syrup or honey," Chinn said.
Coffee is a popular offering at Butter It Up!, but the star of the show is the food.
From Monday to Friday, the couple prepares creations ranging from the popular Paleo Greek Chicken Salad to Stuffed Peppers, Bacon Wrapped Chicken with Roasted Garlic to the Texas Steak Burger and Chicken Pilaf.
"Butternut squash lasagna is the No. 1 seller," Chinn said. "It's unbelievable."
The menu items vary each day. It's not a full-service restaurant as the Chinns are the only two employees.
Instead, the couple prepares a set amount of certain items each morning, post mouth-watering photos on Facebook and place the items in plastic containers in a cooler.
"This is how we entice the customers," Chinn said of the photos, showing the 14 different menu items. "We post, they see - I wish they could smell - and they come in."
Butter It Up! varies a bit from other full-service locations, catering more to people passing through, looking for a healthy delicious lunch.
Customers can eat inside the restaurant or can take their meals home - Chinn says some people purchase 14 at a time - and reheat them when they're ready.
Home health worker Kenny Meadows said he stops in for food at least four times a week.
"I was looking for something healthy to eat while I'm working," he said. "A mutual friend of ours suggested it and I came here because it's real food."
Because the food is gluten-free, Chinn said he finds many people say they feel better after eating there.
"My energy level is better," Meadows said, adding the food is easy on his wallet as well. "I'm spending the same amount of money eating here as I would at the grocery store making my food."
Meadows is not a member of LA East, but says he works out somewhere else in Beckley. That is something Chinn says is surprisingly common among his Butter It Up! customers.
"Right now, 90 percent of our customers are off the street, which threw me for a loop," he said. "I figured we'd have about 50/50, but 90 percent are either gluten-free or have celiac disease and belong to other fitness centers.
"They just really want some place to eat healthy."
Eating healthy has been important to the Chinns for quite some time. But encouraging clients to eat well rather than feeding them had always been the focus.
"I never thought I'd own a restaurant," Chinn said, adding Cyndie might have had other plans.
Although the desire to own a Paleo restaurant was there for Cyndie, the knowledge that it might not work in a "mom and pop" setting was too much to push the couple forward.
But then Butter It Up! came along.
"We knew this is where she could share her healthy cooking with the community," he said.
Despite her love of cooking, Cyndie works as a physical therapy assistant so her time in the restaurant is limited. She does, however, do as much as possible and she keeps her husband trained on everything else.
"It was scary at first, but she walks me through every step I need," he said, adding she also comes up with new meals at home to take to the restaurant. "I have come up with some pretty good meals experimenting."
In the future, the couple hopes to open a freestanding full-service Butter It Up!, but for now, Chinn said he's just focusing on encouraging people to give healthy eating a chance.
"I had a lady ask, 'Well, does the food taste good?"' he said. "People relate healthy food to bland food, but I think half our people forget they're eating healthy food because it tastes so good."
Butter It Up! is located inside LA East at 122 Appalachian Drive and is open from 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday.