Clinton Nutrition ready to help you be healthier
Amy Wright, owner of Clinton Nutrition on Andersonville Highway, waits on a customer at her new business, which serves healthy shakes, loaded teas and iced coffees. (photo:G. Chambers Williams III )
The shop offers 62 flavors of shakes, and more than 50 flavors of teas.
Amy Wright of Rocky Top, who owns the store with her husband, Rob Wright, said the business opened Monday, Nov. 1, and has since then been “slammed” with customers.
“There is nothing like this in Clinton,” she said. “We wanted to offer healthy options to Clinton residents.”
The store is in The Shops at Clinton Square at 2685 Andersonville Highway, next to the new Appalachia Family Dentistry clinic and the Norris Animal Hospital.
“All of our drinks are amazing,” Amy Wright said. “We have loaded teas, a variety of protein shakes that are meal-replacements, and high-protein iced coffees.”
The Wrights operate a lawncare business in Rocky Top, and have “no background in nutrition,” but wanted to open a store similar to one they like to patronize in Knoxville, called Beard Nutrition, Amy Wright said.
“My husband wanted to open the store in Oak Ridge, but I didn’t want to have to drive that far to go to work,” she said. “So we compromised on Clinton, and we’ve just been slammed since we opened our doors.”
Clinton Nutrition sells only the freshly prepared drinks – no health foods – from behind a bar inside the store, and most customers opt for take-out, even though there are about four tables in the shop.
“I wanted to make it homey in here for people to hang out,” Wright said.
“Our loaded teas have 175 to 200 milligrams of caffeine, and zero sugar,” she said. “All of our drinks are low-sugar, low-carb and Keto-friendly.”
Loaded teas have 24 calories and just four grams of carbohydrates, while the shakes have about 24 grams of protein, 10-14 net grams of carbs and 200-250 calories, she added.
Shakes are $8 each; the loaded teas are $7; and there is a $12 combo price for a tea and a shake, according to the posted menu boards. The iced coffees – in mocha, caramel or vanilla flavors – are $7 each.
The shop has six employees now, mostly high school and college students, and is open 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday and 9 a.m. until 2 p.m. on Saturdays. It’s closed on Sundays.
Wright said she wasn’t afraid to open the store in the middle of the coronavirus pandemic, because “These kinds of businesses have started going crazy during COVID.”
“We’re trying to get out of the lawncare business,” Wright said. “We just can’t get help.”