You’ve heard about a “Karen” ordering you around, but have you ever heard about ordering a Karen? Well, if you go to Bevvy’s Soda Shop in Payson, you’ll be able to do just that.
Owner Brooke Holm opened Bevvy’s Soda Shop in December of last year with the goal of having unique soda flavors and names to match.
Many of the names and flavors include “Say Uncle,” which is a peach sour candy-flavored Sprite, “Boy Band,” which is a passion fruit coconut-flavored Sprite, “Zero Rizz,” which is pomegranate coconut-flavored Dr. Pepper that has its namesake rooted in teenage lingo. There is, of course, “The Karen,” which is a pomegranate vanilla cream flavored Coke.
Holm said that there is more to “The Karen ‘’ than meets the taste buds.
Holm explained that her family owned a cosmetology school, and after selling it, the school was going to move into a location that used to be Karen’s Floral Designs. When those plans didn’t work out, Holm decided that she would turn the location into a soda shop and name a drink after the former tenant.
“My family and I opened American Beauty in 2007, which is a cosmetology school,” she explained. “I ran that for a dozen years or so, and we sold it in 2020. I went back to help the new owner with the school, and when Karen Floral decided to move out, we were going to do an expansion of the school. I designed a whole new expansion so that the school could take over, but after a couple of months, my boss changed his mind and then I was like, ‘well, shoot.’ I didn’t want to have to leave the place and new neighbors, and it was a really, really good spot. And I was like, well, then, I’ll do something here.”
“Karen owned the shop for 43 years, so she had been in that location for a really long time,” Holm continued. “It was only fitting to name a drink after her, and with ‘Karen’ being kind of a funny joke these days, it just makes it that much more funny.”
Holm said that all jokes aside, she has long been a soda fan, and she’s excited to be able to finally own one of her own.
“I’ve always been known as the Diet Coke girl who always had a drink no matter what,” she said. “I moved from Payson to Santaquin, and there wasn’t a soda drive through. I mean, you could get a drink at the gas station, but that was about it. Then I thought about opening a place in Santaquin, and that’s kind of where the juices started flowing. And then it occurred to me that the building I was in had a drive through and I was like, ‘I’m going to open Bevvy’s right here in this spot!’”
As for the name, “Bevvy,” Holm said that it’s what she’s always called her drinks.
“I’ve always just called my drinks a ‘bev’ or a ‘bevvy’ because it’s short for beverage,” she said. “I always said that I was going to call it Bevvy’s when I opened a drink store. My kids say my mom likes Diet Pepsi so much, she opened her own diet Pepsi store.”
If you’re wondering if Holm has a favorite drink, she indeed does. It is a coconut fresh lime-flavored Coke or Pepsi fittingly named, “The Bev.”
Whether you’re in the mood for a “Karen,” “Boy Band,” “Dad Joke,” or classic “Bev,” stop by Bevvy’s Soda Shop located at 607 South 100 West in Payson. Bevvy’s can also be followed on Instagram @bevvys.soda.shop.
