Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

NEDERLAND — Tamara and Chester Leteff, a Nederland couple, are holding their grand opening of “Fixxology,” a custom soda shop franchise from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. Friday at 2423 Nederland Avenue.

The fun includes free popcorn and incentives throughout the day.

The Leteffs bought the first location in Vidor from Natalie Briggs, a Vidor resident, in November 2023 and began renovating the second location six week ago.

“My husband was a frequent customer at the Vidor location,” said Tamara Leteff. “And one day, he went in there and he jokingly said, ‘When are you going to sell me this business,’ to which Natalie said, ‘We’re willing to sell.’ So that’s kind of how it started, and we ended up buying it. We became the official owners in March.”

The custom soda shop offers soda, water or “jacked” Red Bull base drinks, Blue Bell ice cream, Italian ice, homemade salsa, cookies, rice krispies treats, soft pretzels, movie theater style popcorn, nachos and the signature Mad Dog all-beef hot dog.

A popular drink is called “The Wicked Grin.”

“It is a Dr. Pepper-based drink with raspberry syrup topped with coconut cream,” Leteff said. “People who are a bit more health-conscious order the ‘Memaw,’ which is a water-based refresher that includes Peach Mango Crystal Lite, sugar free vanilla syrup, coconut syrup, peach syrup and topped with coconut cream.”

The franchise originated in Idaho and Utah and was founded by Becca Madsen, whose mission is to encourage networking and support within communities.

“My husband and I had to travel to Idaho to be interviewed and trained just to make sure we were a good fit for Fixxology,” she said. “Once the paperwork was completed, we knew we wanted to expand to Nederland because this is where we live and go to church, our children attend school and we knew that we wanted to hire Nederland students and residents for our shop.”

The brightly colored store seats 20 people at the bar and includes tables and chairs, as well as a drive thru.

The new owners are following the franchise colors of pink, white and blue.

The colors represent the fun, laid-back atmosphere that has been created.

Leteff said she has hired five individuals but needs 12 to complete the staff.

“With our company, we make it super easy for young kids to pursue this as a first job due to flexible scheduling,” she said. “If they have sports or school obligations, they can easily block their schedule and we work around that. It’s important that they don’t feel stressed when they come to work. They should be able to come in and just feel relaxed while making drinks for their family and community. That is how we start off our interviews, making sure that our customers are treated like you would treat your family or your best friend.”

Other incentives for people to visit the store include colorful tumblers and plastic popcorn buckets that supply the owner with a permanent discount for refills.

“The tumblers are $40,” Leteff said. “But then your first drink is free and you get a discount on every drink after that. So, 20 drinks later, you’ve paid for your tumbler. And same thing with our pop popcorn bucket. It’s $15, but you get $2 refills for the rest of your life in it. So, it is more about creating that customer that comes in like every single day and they have their cup with them. They have their popcorn bucket and they’re getting their refills. They’re getting their ‘fix’ for the day.”

— Reported by Sierra Kondos