New sweet shop selling ‘extreme shakes’ and more will be open by summer at 37th and Ridge

Derek Sorrells rarely rests — especially when it comes to his mission to get sugar into the hands of Wichitans.

Now — just months after opening two locations of his dirty soda shop concept called Just a Sip — Sorrells is about to add a new business and will retool two of his existing ones.

Sorrells, the owner of Papa’s General Store, The Arcade, Sweet n Saucy and Let’s Go Build, says he’s signed a lease for a space in the still-under-construction Shops at Avante, which are going up in front of The Avante apartments on the northwest corner of 37th and Ridge. That’s where he’ll open a new business he plans to call Papa’s Ice Cream & Treats. It’ll be a co-branded store that carries not only the dirty soda creations offered at his two Just A Sip shops — the one at 13th and Tyler that opened in October and the one at 21st and Webb that followed in November — but also have 24 flavors of ice cream, 12 flavors of cones and the full menu of popular “extreme shakes” served at Sorrell’s flagship shop, Papa’s General Store in Clifton Square. Both the Just a Sip and the Papa’s Ice Cream & Treats logos will be on the building.

That’s not all Sorrells is doing, though. The decision to add the new northwest Wichita store, which Sorrells hopes will be open by May, made him also decide to re-brand and expand two of his existing businesses.

The Just a Sip shop at 21st and Webb also will be co-branded with Papa’s Ice Cream & Treats, with both menus and both names on the building. Soon, Sorrells said, he’ll start a remodel at the 21st and Webb location — which at the moment is drive-through-only. When it’s finished, it’ll have room inside for seating. Sorrells hopes to have the remodel completed by March 8.

Also, the Clifton Square Papa’s General Store will become Papa’s Ice Cream & Treats. Customers will be able to pick up most of Just a Sip’s dirty soda offerings at the shop, which will also get a paint job and some new lighting.

The tiny Just A Sip at 13th and Tyler, which has no room for dine-in customers, will stay just as it is and keep its current name.

The new shop at 37th and Ridge will have 2,150 square feet and a drive-through. Sorrells said that his decision to re-brand and remodel his other treat businesses was a direct result of his landing the new Northwest Wichita space.

“We thought, ‘Well, why don’t we do this on the east side, too?’” Sorrells said. “People love our extreme shakes. You can’t get anything like that anywhere else in town.”

The extreme shakes — which are piled high with layer upon layer of decadent ingredients — were added to the Papa’s General Store menu in 2021, and now, the shop serves 12 varieties. The most popular, Sorrells said, is the Oreo Explosion, which is served in a chocolate drizzled and Oreo-coated cup that’s filled with vanilla ice cream and crushed Oreos then topped with an oversized Oreo cookie, two regular Oreo cookies, two Oreo brownie bites, whipped cream and more crushed Oreos.

The shakes won’t be sold through the drive-throughs at 21st and Webb or at 37th and Ridge, though. They’re so gravity-defying and intricate that they’d slow the drive-through down, and people wouldn’t get the same experience, Sorrells said.

Ben Gartner with JP Weigand represented Sorrells on the deal at 37th and Ridge, and Don Piros with Landmark Commercial Real Estate presented the building owner.

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