A young couple has opened a healthy hangout with protein shakes and pre-workout and energy drinks.
Jamaar Duvignaud, 26, and his wife, Keelie, 25, opened Mamba Nutrition on Sept. 9 near Clover Park, the spring training home of the New York Mets and the summer home of the St. Lucie Mets.
It’s in a strip plaza across the street from the side entrance to Indian River State College Pruitt Campus and behind St. Bernadette Catholic Church.
Duvignaud, who was born in Haiti, moved from Philadelphia to Port St. Lucie in 2006. He started dating his future wife, who’s from Palm Beach, during their junior year of high school.
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He went away to college at Florida State University in Tallahassee for five years and found Port St. Lucie was completely different when he returned home.
“I just felt like there was something missing,” Duvignaud said. “I wanted to bring something that was adapted to the times. … I wanted to bring nutrition. Sports is something hip to the St. Lucie West area.”
The couple, who are into fitness and sports, wanted to bring their own style to their business. He loves college football and basketball and even named his restaurant after the late Kobe Bryant, who called himself “The Black Mamba” and wrote an autobiography, “The Mamba Mentality: How I Play.”
They want customers to be able to enjoy a game on the TV at Mamba Nutrition while having a protein shake, a pre-workout drink before the gym or a daily nutritional refresher.
“I wanted to bring a sports bar kind of style — but minus the alcohol consumption,” Duvignaud said.
He offers nutritional consulting, putting his personal training license to use while keeping his day job in sales.
All his products come from Herbalife, a global provider of protein shakes, weight-management programs, nutritional supplements, sports nutrition solutions and personal care products.
Shakes ($9) include 21 vitamins and minerals and 24 grams of protein. Flavors range from banana caramel and dulce de leche to mango pineapple and pina colada.
Chillers ($10) include B6 and B12 vitamins, 15 grams of protein and less than 2 grams of sugar. He said these daily refreshers contain up to 15 grams of protein and are like a Gatorade or Powerade but with only 4 grams of sugar.
The pre-workout “mango maniac” drink ($8) has 2.1 grams of creatine, electrolytes, L-arginine and BCAA. He said these are nutritional before the gym, with a high dose of natural caffeine and green tea extract for natural energy.
The post-workout recovery shake ($10) has L-glutamine and 33 grams of whey and casein protein. He said some can contain up to 57 grams of protein.
The iced coffee ($8), which can be regular or mocha flavored, is high in protein, has less than 2 grams of sugar and is 100 calories. He said it contains up to 15 grams of protein and 90 grams of caffeine.
Duvignaud drinks one every morning and said he feels ready to attack the day.
“A lot of people tend to forget protein is essential,” Duvignaud said. “You need protein to live or your body starts to deteriorate.”
The couple, who has two children, is targeting a demographic of people who work out, but they also want to appeal to non-gym rats. They even have a children’s menu: a kids’ drink ($6) includes 15 grams of protein, electrolytes and less than 2 grams of sugar.
“We want to introduce a healthy lifestyle from beginners to advanced,” Duvignaud said. “Fitness and nutrition should extend to everybody of all ages. The more you take care of your body, the more you’re able to do.”
Mamba Nutrition
- Address: 510 N.W. University Blvd., Unit 104, Port St. Lucie
- Hours: 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday-Friday, 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday (closed Sunday)
- Online: Instagram
Laurie K. Blandford is TCPalm’s entertainment reporter and columnist dedicated to finding the best things to do on the Treasure Coast. Follow her on Twitter @TCPalmLaurie and Facebook @TCPalmLaurie. Email her at laurie.blandford@tcpalm.com. Sign up for her What To Do in 772 weekly newsletter at profile.tcpalm.com/newsletters/manage.
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