~The Intern Series~
Riverside Nutrition, the first establishment of the Community Nutrition Network, has brought a delicious and healthy way to get your protein in for the day! Their shakes contain 24g of protein, 21 essential vitamins, are low in sugar, low in carbs, AND under 250 calories! Riverside’s shakes feature a wide range of flavor options that taste like some of your favorite guilty pleasures such as Banana Nut Cake and White Chocolate Reeses! They also have delicious energy teas that are the perfect way to kickstart your day. If you would like to enjoy the benefits of these shakes and teas but Shelton is too far, do not fret! There are 10 other sister locations part of the Community Nutrition Network that feature the same menus and same specials!
The locations are: Riverside in Shelton, Westies in West Haven, Valley in Oxford, Cross Pointe in Prospect, U-NU in Hamden, Off the Tracks in New Haven, Charged in Ansonia, Vibe in Fairfield, Align in East Haven, and Legacy in North Haven. No matter what location you choose to visit, you will be greeted with the same quality, love, and care while being able to relax at what owner, Jennifer Mosley calls, a healthy bar.
Here’s what we tried!
White Chocolate Reese’s Shake:
Chunky Monkey Shake:
Black Widow Energy Tea:
Riverside Nutrition is the perfect place to become a healthy getaway you can feel good about. You can indulge in something both delicious and good for you, all in one sip! At Riverside, you can relax in a healthy hub and maybe even make steps to change your life!
See my Q&A with the owner and founder of Community Nutrition Network and Riverside Nutrition, Jennifer Mosley, below!
Tell me a little about yourself and why you opened Riverside Nutrition?
“So, my husband went into the fitness field about ten years ago, and with doing so, we realized there weren’t really that many good places to go and get what we felt was a good quality protein chain. With that, I walked into a club that I thought had a good vibe, fell in love with it, and we took it from there when we decided to open our own. We wanted to provide a place where you can come in and get good quality products that aren’t filled with a bunch of fillers and additives, a healthy place where you can hangout and enjoy yourself.”
Can you tell me about the Community Nutrition Network and your role in it?
“We opened Riverside first! Once we opened Riverside, we understood that the community needed more of it, and a group of us came together and we decided to go out into other communities in the state of Connecticut and build the same concept.. They’re not franchises, they have different owners, some of which I’m owners in and others are just partners with mine. We took the exact same concept, same feel, same vibe, and same color scheme; just in other communities. We wanted people to understand that when they came in, it was all a part of our sister clubs. From there, we created CTM, and it just kind of blew up! Now we have 11 locations throughout Connecticut. The state of Connecticut. The locations are: Riverside in Shelton, Westies in West Haven, Valley in Oxford, Cross Pointe in Prospect, U-NU in Hamden, Off the Tracks in New Haven, Charged in Ansonia, Vibe in Fairfield, Align in East Haven, and Legacy in North Haven.”
What are your favorite shakes and teas?
“I go back and forth to be honest. It depends on the season and what specials we have going on!
But ultimately, I can always go to a White Chocolate Reeses, that is something I love. A lot of times people will say to me, I don’t like white chocolate, but It’s not actually white chocolate. We call it white chocolate because the base looks white versus a chocolate base. It’s my ultimate favorite. In the summertime, I love a Pina Colada, but there are times when I crave peanut butter and chocolate, so I’ll do like a chunky monkey (which is chocolate, peanut butter, and banana). For teas, my ultimate favorite, which I will always go to, is a black widow. The black widow was born during our very first fall season. We were trying to create something for Halloween and came up Black Widow and then from there people literally fell in love with it. It became something that we could never take off. As far as I know, you can only get it at Community Nutrition Network bars. We always say it’s part of our secret menu!”
How do you manage to keep them so filling and under 250 calories?
“It’s really the products we use. Our protein shakes are created to be a meal replacement. A lot of people will use these to get on a full program and to either lose weight or gain weight depending on what they’re looking for….The actual products themselves can be used at home. We have a lot of customers that come in and they feel energized and great with our shakes. Then they want to lose/gain weight so we take them on as a client and help them get these products at home. We create a meal plan for them based on what their goals are and looking to see what we could best to help accomplish that!”
Here’s a link if you would like to look into becoming one of CTN’s clients!
https://www.ctnlife.com/15-day-11-coaching
What do you think is unique and special about Riverside Nutrition?
“I think it’s the atmosphere. It’s not just you come in, grab your smoothie, and leave. It’s more like a community, it’s a healthy lounge.. It’s really just somewhere that when people don’t feel good mentally, physically, emotionally, they kind of come in, they can sit down. It’s like a healthy bar. We sit down, they’ll talk about what they’re going through, you know, we’ll joke back and forth, but we create such a relationship with each other. It’s more than just I’m going to get it’s not like Starbucks here. I’m just going to walk in and I’m going to get a coffee. The person behind the bar may be very nice, but then I’m going to leave. Yeah, there’s many customers I have that will sit at the bar for two or 3 hours. Just kind of like I’m having a rough day. I just needed to get away and this is the first place I thought of. That’s what makes it different. It’s the vibe, it’s the atmosphere and it’s knowing that it’s a healthy hub that you can come to and just feel better.”
About the Community Nutrition Network: Our mission is to create a positive, uplifting, fun environment around nutrition + wellness at all of our CTN locations. Our customers come first because we believe everyone matters.
By: Alexa Lopez
