Soda Bar sees new owners, expanded menu

Soda Bar, the area’s first ‘dirty soda’ establishment, changed hands in August, but fans of the establishment can rest assured knowing the new owners are passionate about the business and its growth.

Sisters Nichola Roberts and Stefanie Denklefsen purchased the business, which consists of two locations in Appleton, in August after planning to open their own establishment near Milwaukee.

“I’m originally from Green Bay, but I’ve been living in Idaho for the last 19 years,” Roberts said. “They’re very, very popular out here. I don’t want to say one on every corner, but it’s close to it… I moved back here in February to the Hartland area and I was going to open one with my sister, who was living in Appleton at the time. She was going to move down to Hartland and we were going to start one. We were looking in the Pewaukee area to open our first one and we had been looking at locations.”

Before they could pull the trigger on anything in Pewaukee, though, an opportunity to purchase Soda Bar arose.

“One of the original owners of Soda Bar, Ryan Allred, knew we were doing that and when he got a new job in Chicago, he asked us if we wanted to buy him out,” Roberts said. “There were multiple business owners with Soda Bar originally and we did not want to get into business with a bunch of people we didn’t know, so we told him we either wanted all of it or nothing and we would just start our own. They ended up selling us all of it.”

With the purchase of Soda Bar came its dedicated fan base, including some who have replaced their morning coffee with Soda Bar’s customizable sodas.
“We’ve had multiple customers come in and tell us they’re replacing Starbucks with us, so that’s always great to hear,” Roberts said. “We have a lot of new people that come in who are just curious, and then we’re getting regulars which is great for this kind of business.”

Roberts said there are several crowd favorites on the menu with a variety of base sodas.

“We have a Dr. Pepper drink called The McDreamy that is by far our best seller,” she said. “When people come in for the first time and ask what’s our most popular, that’s what we always recommend… There’s one called Caramel Apple that has a Mountain Dew base that even I was like, ‘That can’t be good,’ and now that’s probably my favorite. The energy drinks have surprised me. I’m shocked at how many people like their mixed energy drinks. Those are crowd-pleasers.”

Since purchasing Soda Bar, Roberts said she and her sister have worked to expand the menu, making sure there is something for everyone — even those who aren’t looking for soda.

“We do offer things other than soda, because there are a lot of non-soda drinkers out there,” she said. “There’s also a lot of non-energy drinkers out there. Since taking over, my sister and I have added Crystal Lite mixes to it with water, so it’s a sugar-free, non-soda option, but it also still gives you the caffeine. We also do custom soda waters and we have a lot of sugar-free syrup options. I think there’s a misconception that if you go here, soda is what you’re getting. That definitely will sometimes persuade certain people not to come, but we are trying to expand the menu so we are tailoring to everybody’s needs a little bit better.”

And moving forward, Roberts said she hopes to see the business expand even more, both on and off the menu.

“We’re still in the process of trying to expand the menu,” she said. “We really want to get pretzels or something like that on the menu. We’re always trying to find ways to grow. And not just in our menu. We’ve also been looking at different locations. We’re just excited about the future of Soda Bar.”

Find more information about Soda Bar and its selection of drinks at mysodabar.com.