At a “friends and family” pre-opening event this past weekend, people steadily lined up at a new Overland Park dessert shop to get their sugar fix in various forms.
Some left the shop, named Sugar Llamas, with boxes of doughnuts, others holding ice cream cones and others sipping on lattes and “dirty” (or flavored) sodas and energy drinks.
Some were being introduced to the Oklahoma-based brand for the first time, while others were excitedly returning after first visiting other Sugar Llamas locations in Oklahoma and Texas.
Either way, the shop’s franchise owners said, people left happy. After all, they joked, that’s not hard to do at a dessert shop.
“You’re getting sweets treats; you can’t walk away with something here and not be smiling,” Nida Zaidi — who owns the new Overland Park franchise with her husband, Syed Haider — said with a laugh.
The new shop has “soft opened” its doors in Overland Park, marking the Oklahoma-based company’s debut in Johnson County.
Sugar Llamas opened at 8971 Metcalf Ave.
- The shop opened in a space at the Promontory shopping center, near Chinese eatery Bo Lings.
- The space was previously used for storage and unoccupied by another retail tenant.
- Sugar Llamas is in its soft opening phase right now, during which its hours are 11 a.m. to 8 p.m.
- After the grand opening in May, it will be open from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday through Thursday, 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. Friday and Saturday, and 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Sunday.
Sugar Llamas is a “one-stop shop” of sweets
The Oklahoma-based company is known, in large part, for its mini doughnuts.
Those doughnuts come in a wide variety of flavors, from blueberry pancake and cinnamon roll to s’mores and “Flintstone” (with vanilla icing and fruity pebbles).
After ordering their doughnuts, customers can watch as their doughnuts are fried and iced. Haider and Zaidi plan to eventually have a platform put in by the counter, so the shop’s youngest customers can step up and get a look.
“I think you don’t get to experience that much outside of fairs and carnivals,” Zaidi said. “The fresh, hot mini doughnuts are definitely what bring people in.”
In addition to doughnuts, Sugar Llamas offers ice cream in a variety of flavors, such as Dubai chocolate, raspberry cheesecake and amaretto cherry. The shop also serves coffee drinks and “dirty” sodas and flavored Red Bull mixers.
Though it’s primarily a counter-service operation, Haider and Zaidi plan to also install a self-order kiosk at the front for people who’d prefer to order that way.
The idea, they said, is that parents and children alike can all find their sugar fix under one roof.
As parents themselves, that aspect was important to them. After all, Zaidi said, she knows the feeling of desperately needing a caffeine boost in the middle of an ice cream run on a busy afternoon with the kids.
“Being able to have everyone come to one place and be happy, that was important for us,” she said.
This marks Sugar Llamas’ debut in Johnson County
Sugar Llamas got its start in Tulsa, Oklahoma, in 2021. Since then, the brand has expanded with several locations in Oklahoma and Texas, with more on the way in states like California and Arizona.
As Overland Park residents themselves, Haider and Zaidi said the Promontory shopping center made natural sense to house their first Sugar Llamas franchise.
“As first-time business owners, we did want to be close to home,” Zaidi said. “It makes a huge difference.”
The space’s centrality to so much other growth and activity along Metcalf Avenue and just south of downtown Overland Park also helped, including in terms of the revamped Overland Park Farmers’ Market, which is preparing to reopen for the season soon.
“It hit all the check boxes for us,” Haider said.
It’s a bit of a full-circle moment for Haider, whose first job as a teenager was at Dunkin’ Donuts.
Now, after steadily moving up the ranks in retail management and owning his own consulting business, he’s helping customers get their sugar and caffeine fixes in a franchise of his own.
Not only that, but he’s now the one employing and training people in the community, which is an aspect of leadership he said he’s looking forward to.
“My job is not to just bark orders or set the expectations, but also to develop people,” he said. “As long as we have the right processes, right practices, and the routines in, it just makes life a lot easier — whether you’re a 16-year-old or 65-year-old.”
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