“Standing here on my first day of opening feels surreal. My team told me we had to open during Mardi Gras. At times that seemed impossible, but they kept pushing and telling me there will be a lot of things we won’t know until we get there, and we will figure them out. 

I grew up in Mobile, and I am a first generation college graduate and entrepreneur. My mom was my first investor. We aren’t rich, but she took her money and said, ‘go make magic happen’. Since then, I have been piecing together the strength, tenacity, enthusiasm and logistics to get here. 

Ginger and Spice started in August of 2020 — in the middle of COVID. I was living in Washington D.C. where I was a communications data analyst looking at numbers and spreadsheets all day for the U.S. Department of Energy. Washington D.C. was one of the first places to quarantine for the pandemic, and they expected the shut down to last about a month. 

I hadn’t been back to Mobile for an extended visit with family since I moved away after high school. I thought I would come here for about a month and then go back to my life. That changed when I couldn’t find a cold press juicery in Mobile. 

One of my favorite spots in D.C. is Turning Natural with cold-pressed juices made from raw vegetables. It is owned by a Black woman, and I felt welcomed there because the customers looked like me. It inspired me to change my eating habits to raw veganism and a more plant-based diet. I took a lot of nutrition classes in D.C. and learned that raw vegetables are where our power lies, and they are how to take our power back. 

Something in me said, ‘this is what you need to do in Mobile,’ and I started dreaming of opening a business in my hometown.

During Covid, everybody was getting sick, and I wanted to help my friends and family feel better. I bought a juicer, and it grew from there. Ginger and Spice started two years ago in an apartment duplex with online orders. Customers picked up from our commissary or we delivered. The demand quickly grew beyond what we could make in that kitchen, so we had to take it a step farther. 

In December 2022, they put an 8.5 x11 piece of paper in the window of this shop at 209 Dauphin Street that said, ‘Call this number if you are interested’. I kept calling the number and sent the owner an executive summary and juice. I told him, ‘I need this spot and Mobile needs my business’. He called me back and said, ‘you bugged the hell out of me in the most elegant way. I have to make it available to you’. 

For the last 45 days, we have been here every day working on the store morning until night making this happen. I have six employees, and I am so thankful for my team. 

Switching careers at age 30 and opening a juice bar in Mobile wasn’t my plan. After college, there was no chance that I was coming back to Mobile. I moved to Atlanta and D.C. and traveled to over 35 countries. I didn’t have kids, and I was climbing the corporate ladder. I even worked at the White House in the Obama administration.

Now I want to help people rebuild their relationship with raw fruits and vegetables. Diet-related diseases and inflammation-related issues run rampant in the Black community. That’s one of the reasons our life span is so short. There is power in information and education, and I want to help change the narrative about the state of Black health. Our motto here is, ‘every healthy tree bears good fruit’.

Everything in my entire career has been public facing. Servanthood is my core, and I get it from my mama. I used to fuss when she made me go with her to volunteer, but she always rubbed off on me. 

I am 33 now and see that our plans aren’t always God’s plans.  Opening this juicery in Mobile became important to be an example for Black women and entrepreneurs, showing what is possible here. You can’t be what you can’t see. Maybe someone else can learn from this.

Our shirts say, ‘Victory favors the brave’. When you are brave enough, there’s no reason why you can’t be victorious.”

(Ginger and Spice is located at 209 Dauphin Street next to the A&M Peanut Shop and across from the Crescent Theater.)

Shamyra