A south St. Louis County woman’s desire to consume less sugar grew to a full-fledged business in Kimmswick.
Over the past year, Megan Exler, 36, and her husband, David, 38, began selling dirty soda in their front yard with their children, but then they started selling the product from a food truck and eventually opened a walk-up stand in Kimmswick called Sodie Specialty Drinks.
The business specializes in dirty soda – a mixture of fountain soda with syrups and creams.
“I was drinking diet Coke with sugar-free coconut and lime and diet root beer with heavy cream in it,” Megan said. “I was like ‘there really is nowhere to get this around here.’ I started doing some research. At the time, popup lemonade stands were popular online. I was seeing all of these fresh-squeezed lemonade stands popping up with a tent and a table. I was like, ‘I will do that, only with dirty soda.’
“It was just for fun with the kids when we did the front yard thing. People responded well to it in our neighborhood, and it grew from there.”
The growth led to the Exlers opening a permanent stand at 113 Market St., next to Kimmswick Mercantile.
The stand had a soft opening on Oct. 24 and was open during the Apple Butter Festival. The grand opening will be Saturday.
Exler said the stand will likely be open from noon to 5 p.m. on Wednesdays, Thursdays and Sundays and from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays.
“It was definitely not the plan from the beginning (to open the dirty soda business),” said Megan, who also works as an admissions director at a technical college.
“I can’t believe people like us. It is really cool to see other people enjoy this crazy idea that I had one day. We didn’t expect this.”
Megan said she learned about dirty soda through a podcast when a comedian talked about being obsessed with fountain soda mixtures that were popular in Utah.
Megan said she then saw videos about dirty soda on TikTok and found recipes there, too.
“I was drinking dirty soda at home because I was cutting back on my sugar intake, which sounds crazy,” she said.
Megan said the next step was operating a stand in her family’s front yard in June 2024 with her husband and their children – Margot, 9, and Crosby, 6.
The Exlers then purchased a trailer in August 2024 to use as a food truck, and first sold dirty sodas from it in September 2024 during a church festival near their home. Megan said they also set up Sodie Specialty Drinks at the Oakville Community Market.
“I emailed whoever I could, and I searched for events on Facebook,” Megan said. “I had to explain what we were selling. No one knew what dirty soda was.”
Megan said Sodie Specialty Drinks began developing a larger customer base when she and her husband started selling dirty soda next to Marco’s Taco in Imperial.
“They pop up on Imperial Main Street every Saturday,” she said. “When I introduced myself, the owner said come pop up with us any time you want. From there, we were popping up with them fairly regularly through the summer. We also did the Webster Groves Farmers Market over the summer.”
Another boon for the business was when the show “The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives” started streaming on Hulu in the fall of 2024. The show featured Utah-based TikTok influencers who introduced an audience to dirty soda.
“We had already been a business for a few months at that point,” Megan said. “It was at a trunk or treat in October, someone came up and said, ‘Is this dirty soda, like from that Mormon show?’ I was like, ‘Yes, it is just like that.’ That is when people started to understand what we are selling. From there, it just became commonly known. A lot of dirty soda places are popping up around St. Louis, and it has helped us so much. People want dirty soda now. They want to try it because they have heard about it. It has been crazy.”
Sodie Specialty Drinks has been a staple during Kimmswick’s Food Truck Fridays, which began in July. Megan said she and her husband started looking for a place to operate a stand in Kimmswick during the summer.
“I knew for a walkup shop, it needed to be a walkable area, and that is why Kimmswick came to mind,” she said. “I drove around looking for spots. I called City Hall and spoke with them. They loved the idea. I spoke with the mayor and got his support. A couple of spots fell through. I had to go to board of aldermen meetings, and at the first meeting, a business owner in Kimmswick said he had space at Kimmswick Mercantile.”
Sodie Specialty Drinks sells 24-ounce drinks for $5.50 each. Megan said she and David plan to start selling a 32-ounce drink soon.
There are 13 dirty soda combinations on the menu, four variants of lemonades and five Red Bull drinks infused with syrups and creams. The business also lists all of its base flavors of sodas, lemonade and water along with its different syrup and cream additives to allow customers to create their own drinks.
“We have people make their own concoctions all the time,” Megan said. “Over the summer, we had a girl who lives in Imperial who would come regularly, and she got her custom order. We took her order and put it on our secret menu.”
Megan said the customer’s regular order is called the Elle, and it is Dr. Pepper with pineapple, coconut and vanilla cream. She also said that customer is now an employee at the Kimmswick stand.
Megan said the two most popular drinks on the menu are the Razzle Dazzle, a combination of Dr. Pepper with raspberry and vanilla, and Annoying Orange, which is Sprite with orange and vanilla.
“My favorites are the Pina Coke-Lada (Coca Cola with coconut and fresh lime), and our Red Bull drinks,” Megan said. “My go-to is the Island Energy (Red Bull with peach, pineapple and coconut.”
The Exlers’ children also have drinks named after them.
The Sweet Girl, which is Sprite with strawberry and vanilla, is named after Margot, and The Croz, which is lemonade with blue raspberry and vanilla, is named after Crosby.
“(The Sweet Girl) is one of our best sellers,” Megan said. “(Crosby) doesn’t like soda, which is fine with me. He likes the lemonades.”
Megan said the dirty soda business has grown quickly, and she is proud of how fast it has caught on.
“I am grabbing the opportunities as they come,” she said. “I don’t want to get to years from now and think, what if I had done that?”
For information, go to heysodie.com or call 573-450-7162.