Cool Sips Founder Seeks Growth With Urban Version of (Non-Alcoholic) ‘Dirty Drinks’ Trend

Cool Sips recently opened its third location in Manhattan. Two more are planned for this year. — Cool Sips

Why it matters:

The “dirty drinks” trend of customizable and, in this case, non-alcoholic beverages originated in Utah and has been growing rapidly as both a stand-alone shop concept and an option on restaurant menus.
Startup Cool Sips is seeking to leverage its “first-mover” status in this emerging niche by focusing on growing its locations in the New York City market and beyond.
Low operating costs and high margins have driven store-level profitability and make Cool Sips ripe for further growth, according to its Founder.

Andrew Moger is seeking to introduce New Yorkers to “dirty drinks,” a non-alcoholic restaurant niche that offers customizable beverages—usually soda, sparkling water, or energy drinks—that are blended with coffee creamer, coconut cream, flavored syrups, and/or other ingredients. (While “dirty drinks” also connote alcoholic beverages, it’s mocktails that are driving this latest trend.)

Moger’s startup concept, Cool Sips, recently opened its third location in Manhattan, and several more are planned. Moger is a veteran investor in several restaurant concepts and affiliated business, including Mediterranean fast-casual chain Naya, barbecue chain Mighty Quinn’s, and the The Smith Restaurant chain of casual dining bistros.

He said he saw an opportunity to branch out into the dirty drinks segment after seeing the success of chains such as Swig, which claims to have opened the first stand-alone dirty drinks concept in 2010 in St. George, Utah. (Research firm Datassential named Swig as one of the fastest-growing restaurant concepts in the United States in its Top 500 Restaurants report this year.)

“I started seeing a proliferation of the category of dirty drinks, or crafted fountain drinks, but I noticed that it hadn’t really made it to many urban markets,” said Moger. “It certainly hadn’t made it to New York City yet, so I saw an opportunity to test the waters.”

Other chains that have launched concepts in the niche include Fiiz Drinks, Sodalicious—which has a partnership with PepsiCo—and a handful of smaller startups. In addition, an increasing number of traditional restaurant operators have incorporated dirty drinks into their menus, including burger chains Sonic and Jack in the Box and coffee chain Dutch Bros.

The interior of a Cool Sips "dirty soda" location. The shop has wood floors, a wall lined with menus on LED screens, and a chrome-fronted cashier stand covered with stickers. The menus include selections like "bases" for soda orders and "add-ins" like syrups and creams. — **Cool Sips offers "dirty drinks"—non-alcoholic beverages mixed with syrups, creams, and other ingredients—in a simple format with a "beach vibe."** — Cool Sips

Part of the non-alcoholic beverage trend

The dirty drinks category has also received a boost from the popularity of Hulu reality show The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives, whose characters—TikTok influencers together known as MomTok—often visit Swig for a non-alcoholic beverage treat.

Dirty drinks can be considered a subset of the non-alcoholic beverage category, which has increasingly seen “sober-curious” consumers and others reaching for beverages such as zero-alcohol beer, wines, and spirits and mocktails.

“Once a niche category, the non-alcoholic drinks market is now a booming space for innovation and consumer excitement,” said research firm Mintel in a recent report.

When it comes to dirty drinks in particular, the trend has been gaining traction in traditional restaurants, particularly as seasonal or limited time offers, according to a recent report on the category from Datassential. It is now offered on 2.5% of soda menus, and its presence is expected to continue to grow, the report found.

Claire Conaghan, Trendologist and Associate Director of Publications at Datassential, said the category has broad appeal.

“Dirty soda continues to gain fans as younger consumers love the option to customize another beverage category, and older consumers see it as a new version of the beloved float and soda fountain culture that feels like a 1950s throwback,” she said.

Measured expansion in New York City first: ‘Then, once we feel comfortable, we’ll go outside the market’

Moger owns a majority stake in Cool Sips Holdings, which operates the Cool Sips concept, through his investment company, BCD Strategic Investments. He said the first two locations have already earned a return on their initial investment and are operating profitably.

Plans call for two more locations in New York City this year and five more in 2026, Moger said.

“We’d like to keep it in New York City for the first 10,” he said. “We think we have first-mover advantage here in New York, and we’d like to take advantage of that.

“We’re building our infrastructure here by way of human capital, brand recognition, and purchasing power—so we are going to leverage that as much as possible,” Moger said. “Then, once we feel comfortable, we’ll go outside the market.”

Dirty soda continues to gain fans as younger consumers love the option to customize another beverage category, and older consumers see it as a new version of the beloved float and soda fountain culture that feels like a 1950s throwback. Claire Conaghan, Trendologist and Associate Director of Publications at Datassential

A simple yet differentiated concept that evokes ‘summer at the beach’ vibes

Moger’s optimism about the potential success of Cool Sips going forward stems not just from the dirty drink trend’s surging popularity, but also from its low-cost operating model and the high profit margins on beverages in general.

Cool Sips’ Manhattan outlets are small—ranging from as little as 200 square feet at the South Street Seaport to 1,000 square feet at the newest location on the Upper East Side—and can be operated by just one or two workers at a time.

Cool Sips seeks to create a “surfing culture” or “summer at the beach” vibe in its stores, which Moger said has resonated with customers and helps to differentiate it from other dirty drink concepts. The stores invite customers to venture inside with exterior signs suggesting that passersby “Drop In” and “Chill Out.”

Although Moger declined to disclose specific sales volumes, the original Cool Sips, a 500-square-foot store in Rockefeller Center, is posting double-digit sales growth year-over-year, he said.

The Cool Sips menu includes “Signature Sips” with names such as the Dirty Dirty (Dr Pepper with coconut, lime, and half and half) and the Cape May (Starry lemon-lime soda with green apple syrup and sweet cream). The average ticket is about $8.50.

Another section of the menu offers “Stuffed Sips” that feature boba or flavored jellies and include drinks such as the Nags Head (root beer with toasted marshmallow flavoring and brown sugar boba) and the Tybee (orange Gatorade with strawberry syrup, vanilla cream, and strawberry jellies).

The “Create Your Own Sip” menu allows customers to select from a variety of base beverages, including lemonade, iced teas, sodas, cold-brew coffee, energy drinks, and hot beverages including hot cider, hot coffee, hot tea, and hot chocolate. Customers then select from a variety of creams, syrups, and other add-ins to customize their order.

Cool Sips also recently began testing its first food item—a pretzel croissant called the Barrel Roll—but it’s monitoring its performance carefully because the company wants to keep its operations as simple as possible, Moger said.

Opportunities and challenges for growth

The low overhead costs and the simplicity of the model are among the reasons that the concept could be ideal for franchising at some point, Moger said, although for now he is focused strictly on company-owned-and-operated locations.

Among the challenges that the company is seeking to overcome is that, despite the popularity of dirty drinks in Utah and other Western states, it’s still not widely recognized as a stand-alone concept in New York.

“Guests will walk in the first time and say, ‘What is this? Is this ice cream? Is this coffee?’” Moger said. “And while we do offer coffee, that’s not really the tip of the spear for us, so there has definitely been more of an education process than we expected.

“If you ask 100 people on the street if they know what dirty drinks are, probably only 10 people could answer that,” said Moger. “That’s the bad news early on, but it’s good news in the sense that there’s a lot of white space and a lot of upside. As dirty drinks get further into the zeitgeist, then we have runway to grow.”

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