KC Daiquiri Shop closing Dec. 1; iconic duo behind the party vibes plans to ‘regroup, reflect, and rebuild’
November 26, 2024 | Tommy Felts
The good times roll through the weekend at KC Daiquiri Shop as the well-known Mardi Gras-themed getaway on Grand Boulevard shuts down its years-long revelry.
KC Daiquiri Shop; photo by Taylor Wilmore, Startland News
“This decision has not come lightly,” Kinley Strickland and Calvin Vick, owners of KC Daiquiri Shop, said Monday in a social media post announcing the business’ plans to close Dec. 1. “We have faced a slow economy, challenges with local and state government, and ongoing legal battles with neighboring businesses that have been less than supportive.”
The news follows the closures earlier this year of Soiree, The Krave, and Privee — Black-owned restaurants that each became a staple of Kansas City’s evolving food scene.
KC Daiquiri Shop opened in 2019, building its colorful, music-wrapped brand from the storefront at 1116 Grand. Strickland and Vick were at the front of the line in 2020, pushing for restaurant industry and city ordinance changes to allow establishments like KC Daiquiri Shop to offer cocktails to go during the pandemic — a move aimed at saving their livelihoods, as well as helping out customers in search of an escape back to normalcy.
“We developed a special product. It’s not like you can go to a restaurant or a bar and get it,” Vick told Startland News in 2020, describing the ways KC Daiquiri Shop innovated and advocated for itself in the face of COVID setbacks. “People come to us from St. Joseph, Wichita, Iowa.”
Kinley Strickland and Calvin Vick, KC Daiquiri Shop; Image courtesy of The Man Listen Show
Strickland and Vick left their corporate careers for entrepreneurship in 2018, driven by Vick’s daiquiri shop concept. With support from their sister company in Dallas with owners from New Orleans, they wanted to offer a taste of the city in the Midwest.
“We knew we’d be successful. A lot of people didn’t believe in the concept in the Midwest, but we know it would work,” Strickland told Startland News earlier this year. “No one has the authentic New Orleans experience with the frozen daiquiris, Cajun and Creole food, the atmosphere, or the vibe.”
Riding a parade of post-pandemic success, KC Daiquiri Shop later opened a seasonal ballpark stand at Legends Field in Kansas City, Kansas, home of the Kansas City Monarchs, along with a standalone Cajun restaurant — KC Daiquiri Shop: Bistreaux — in 2021 in Overland Park.
The Bistreaux concept closed in October 2023.
“Throughout our journey, we have been proud to provide not just delicious food and drinks, but also a place where our community could gather, connect, and celebrate,” Strickland and Vick said in Monday’s social media statement. “We have created jobs, offered opportunities to second-chance felons and our displaced citizens, and continued to foster a sense of belonging that we hope has enriched your lives as much as it has enriched ours.”
The business partners’ next steps: regroup, reflect, and rebuild, they said, emphasizing it’s not the end for them.
“We believe in the resilience of our community and the power of support we have always shared. We trust that this moment will lead to new beginnings and opportunities for us all,” they said. “Thank you for the love, support, and memories over the years. We will carry the spirit of the DaqShop and the connections we’ve made into whatever comes next. Keep an eye out for what lies ahead — we are excited for the future!”
2024 Startups to Watch
stats here
Related Posts on Startland News
PrairieFood grows power of its micro-carbon ag solution with a pipeline of human connection
Startland News’ Startup Road Trip series explores innovative and uncommon ideas finding success in rural America and Midwestern startup hubs outside the Kansas City metro. LAWRENCE — Entrepreneurship is all about networking, Robert Herrington said. “You never know where a pivot or direction is going to come from,” said Herrington, an early member of the Pipeline…
C2FO marks $300B in funding for businesses as entrepreneurs navigate ongoing credit crunch
Rapid marketplace expansion in the first half of 2023 helped push Leawood-based C2FO — the world’s on-demand working capital platform — past the $300-billion mark in total funding to its customers. This record funding amount reflects invoices paid an average of 31 days early via C2FO’s platform. C2FO gets vital, low-cost capital into customers’ hands…
Froyo with a ’tini twist: Entrepreneur collaboration serves alcoholic frozen yogurt in KC
Kansas City is excited by the new flavor combinations popping up as two entrepreneurs give customers a taste of collaboration, said Isaac Collins, teasing a line of alcoholic frozen yogurt that’s already hitting cups in the metro. Through a partnership with KC-based Brain Freeze Mobile Daiquiri, Collins’ Yogurtini locations have begun a series of happy…
How Meshuggah Bagels ‘built a bakery without a recipe’ — now expanding to Liberty, Lawrence
Pete Linde tested 72 bagel recipes before hitting perfection with number 73, said Janna Linde. She knows because she tried every single test bagel. “Pete worked on that recipe for about a year. He had a notebook and took notes on every little tweak and modification he made. I’d see the big hand mixer come…