Business is popping at the new KC Soda Co. in the Legends

The owners of the new KC Soda Co. hope to roll out their own specialty craft soda line by the end of the year.

Until then, their customers have 1,304 different premium craft sodas from around the world to select from at their new shop in the Legends Outlets Kansas City. The shop — at 1843 Village West Parkway, Suite C-125, Kansas City, Kan., under Dave & Buster’s — offers nostalgic flavors as well as some by the newest soda companies.

Most of its sodas sell for $2.25 a bottle, but a few hard-to-find or difficult-to-import flavors sell for $3 a bottle. Flavors include Dang Butterscotch Root Beer from Wisconsin, Filbert’s Lime Green Old Time Chicago Soda, Olde Brooklyn Birch Beer and Capone Family Secret Grape Soda.

Founders Matt Baysinger and Lucas Thompson opened Mass Street Soda Co. in downtown Lawrence in April 2014 and now draw soda fans from up to 200 miles away. The partners also ship their sodas to online customers across the country.

They plan to introduce their own soda under the KC Soda Co. brand later this year. The first three flavors will be a cream soda, a root beer with a special kick (perhaps cinnamon) and a peach soda using peaches from Kansas and Missouri. Then they will ask fans to suggest the next flavors.

Waldo’s Classic Cookie wants to expand

The Classic Cookie, a Waldo mainstay for nearly three decades, will either expand at its current spot or move, a cafe official said this week.

Don Peattie took over operation of the cafe, at 409 W. Gregory Blvd., in March. But after operating it for nearly five months, Peattie said he discovered that building repairs needed to be made and that the cafe needed to beef up business.

“We’ve got to grow or we’ve got to go,” said Peattie, who formerly owned McLain’s Bakery in Waldo.

The Classic Cookie has two years left on its lease, but Peattie is meeting with his landlord to try to work out a new deal. He would like to expand into a former Pilates and barre studio that recently moved.

Peattie also would like to refresh the lunch menu and offer even more sandwiches and salads, he said, as well as increase to-go orders. He is buying the business from Leslie Stockard, who has owned it since 1998.

The Classic Cookie first opened on the Country Club Plaza in early 1982 and three years later added a downtown shop in City Center Square, according to Kansas City Star archives. The Mrs. Fields Cookies chain purchased the two locations in 1988 and converted them to Mrs. Fields operations.

The owners of the Classic Cookie held on to the rights to the name and recipes and had the right to open cafes a mile or more away from their former locations.

The Waldo cafe opened in mid-1988 and currently serves breakfast and lunch, including omelets, French toast, chutney chicken salad, ham and cheese sandwiches with raspberry honey mustard and a variety of cookies including oatmeal raisin, chocolate peanut butter chips and snickerdoodles.

Landlord Nicholas Abnos said he had two possible tenants for the Pilates and barre yoga space but now wants to give the Classic Cookie first dibs.

“It’s like an anchor almost. Someone like me would never want a place like that to go away,” Abnos said. “If our negotiations are completed, he will expand into the Pilates space.”

This story was originally published July 31, 2015 at 7:56 PM with the headline "Business is popping at the new KC Soda Co. in the Legends."