The latest over-the-top sweet craze is coming to Wichita
How great of parents are Manny and Maria Osorio?
They’re starting a new business just to please their kids — although, admittedly, it will save on some trips to Florida, too.
The Osorios’ children, Aundrea, 8, Gabby, 6, and Mason, 1, love getting milkshakes at Planet Hollywood in Orlando.
“That’s their favorite restaurant,” said Manny Osorio, an accountant. “I said, you know, there has to be a better way for me to do this other than traveling to Orlando.”
So on Friday, he and his family are opening Shake Workz at Towne East Square where Gladspoon, an ice cream and raw cookie dough business, had been.
That also happens to be next to the family’s Beyond Sneaker Shop.
Nationally, what’s become known as monster milkshakes are popular, but the Osorios aren’t doing a franchise. They have created their own signature shakes — there will be 10 to start — and will offer a build-your-own shake along with some limited-time shakes.
“We put our own little twist to it,” Manny Osorio said.
He said there will be much more variety than simply chocolate, strawberry and birthday cake shakes.
“My kids wanted to venture out of that,” Osorio said.
There will be a unicorn cotton candy milkshake with a unicorn horn lollipop on top, a coffee-based milkshake with a doughnut on top and a banana split milkshake to name just a few.
“They’re over-the-top crazy,” Osorio said. “My goal is to appeal to my kids and kids in general . . . and anybody who really has a sweet tooth like this.”
The milkshakes will cost $6 to $15.
The build-your-own milkshakes will allow customers to pick a shake flavor along with a rim flavor and whatever toppings they’d like.
Osorio said he wants the business to feel like a factory where milkshakes are made.
“It’s going to have the essence of a milkshake industrial factory.”
Osorio said if the Towne East Shake Workz works out well, the family may expand to other sites.
“It’s a fun, playful something different in Wichita,” he said. “You really don’t see over-the-top milkshakes.”
This story was originally published March 22, 2021 at 4:47 AM.