‘Sophisticated fun’ in Johnson County: Frozen daiquiris with Creole/Cajun cuisine

Partners Kinley Strickland and Calvin Vick planned a soft opening for their new KC Daiquiri Shop Bistreaux in Overland Park.

Only six hours on June 4, a limited menu and little fanfare. They expected only about 200 customers over the evening.

But a line quickly formed before the doors opened, and within 90 minutes they had served more than 150 people.

The first KC Daiquiri Shop opened at 1116 Grand Blvd. in 2019. But during the pandemic, the owners realized many of their customers had been coming from Johnson County, Topeka and even Jefferson City. So they started scouting for a Johnson County location. The freestanding building with parking lot at 8725 Metcalf Ave. also has an event space.

It features more of a chef-driven menu than the downtown location.

Two dishes are already popular orders on the Creole/Cajun menu: the oyster Pontchartrain (either charbroiled Parmesan-crusted or on the half shell), and the salmon New Orleans, which can be ordered pan-seared, or blackened with crab and shrimp and topped with its Cajun Kreme sauce (similar to Alfredo sauce) on a bed of garlic mashed potatoes.

Other menu items include crab cakes, lobster bisque, seafood pasta, fried pickle spears, sweet potato waffle fries, fried okra and dirty rice.

Cocktails include the OP OMG with rum and pineapple juice.

Daiquiris come in mango, hypnotic (a blue raspberry), Hulk (mango, apple and watermelon), strawberry, lemonade and margarita. Their daiquiris to-go were so popular, it got them through the pandemic when downtown was so deserted, Strickland said, that it “looked like an episode of ‘The Walking Dead.’”

The Overland Park location is more family-friendly than downtown, so it offers virgin daiquiris, and children also get a choice of a grilled cheese po’boy with fries.

Desserts include sweet potato cheesecake, bourbon pecan pie and bread pudding.

The space features New Orleans photos and a mural of a New Orleans street parade by Kansas City artist J.T. Daniels.

It will have live jazz on Thursdays, Fridays and during Sunday brunch.

“Cajun cuisine hits all the demographics, and the frozen drinks are unique,” Strickland said. “It’s sophisticated fun.”

The owners plan to open another location, perhaps in south Overland Park, Lee’s Summit or the Legends Outlets Kansas City-area in Kansas City, Kansas.