A new drink shop on Addison Avenue East in Twin Falls is serving up more than sodas and energy drinks — it's building its entire business model around giving adults with intellectual, developmental and physical disabilities a paid job and a place to belong. The Daily Drip celebrated its grand opening on Sept. 25 after quietly soft-opening since June, and the response so far has surprised even the people who run it.
According to KMVT, the shop's founders describe the grand opening as a huge hit, with strong community turnout and buzz that's reportedly carried over to the shop's popular TikTok account. The menu covers just about anything nonalcoholic — sodas, energy drinks, lemonades, teas, coffee and water — with co-founder Michelle Wilson telling the station simply, “We offer, if it is a drink and non-alcoholic, we offer it.” Among the flavors, one has stood out in a way nobody quite expected.
Pickle Lemonade Becomes the Breakout Hit
Energy drinks and coffee move steadily at the counter, but it's pickle lemonade that has become the shop's most talked-about pour. Per the station's report, staff have called its popularity “oddly” strong — an unlikely favorite for a shop whose real mission has little to do with what's in the cup.
That mission traces back to a pizza shop more than 800 miles away. Wilson said she got the idea for the Daily Drip after watching a Colorado pizzeria employ and train people with disabilities, telling the outlet, “There's a pizza shop that's run by a lady who brings in individuals with disabilities.” That shop appears to match Brewability, an Englewood brewery and pizzeria founded by Tiffany Fixter that employs adults with disabilities. More than two dozen employees there navigate work and life with autism, Down syndrome, cerebral palsy, and visual and hearing impairments, and Pizza Marketplace reported the business employs around 25 people with disabilities and uses picture-based instructions and color-coded measuring systems to structure kitchen tasks. Fixter has said she keeps a waiting list of hundreds of potential employees hoping for a spot.
A Twin Falls Name Rooted in Idaho Falls
The Daily Drip's name has a more local origin story. The shop was named after a drink trailer a co-founder bought in Idaho Falls that was already called the Daily Drip, the station's report notes. Sean Johansson encouraged Wilson to pursue the employment mission behind the eventual Twin Falls shop, and the business now operates as an affiliate of the William D. Benkula Foundation, a nonprofit that supports people with intellectual or developmental disabilities and the direct support professionals who work with them, according to the Daily Drip's website.
Wilson's daughter, Kaitlin Wilson, serves as general manager and told the station the shop's employees are happy to be there and arrive ready each day. The business says it works with people who have intellectual, developmental or physical disabilities and helps them learn job tasks, routines and workplace procedures as part of a broader goal of training, mentorship and lifelong skills, per the shop's site. The site also states the Daily Drip aims to create meaningful, paid employment for adults with developmental disabilities and to build community recognition for the people it hires.
Idaho's Disability Employment Gap
The push for inclusive hiring in Twin Falls lands against a backdrop of persistent employment gaps for disabled Idahoans. An estimated 269,585 state residents, or 14.1% of Idaho's population, had a disability based on the 2022 American Community Survey, according to Idaho at Work. Among working-age Idahoans with disabilities, an estimated 140,752 people faced a 6.4% unemployment rate — roughly double the 3.1% rate for the state's general population in September 2023, the same source reports. People needing workplace accommodations have been identified as one group employers have increasingly looked to amid broader labor shortages.
The pattern isn't unique to Idaho. Nationally, less than 23% of working-age people with disabilities were employed in 2023, with an unemployment rate of 7% among disabled adults, according to a Harvard Business School account that also profiled Lucky Ones Coffee, a Park City, Utah business with locations in Park City and nearby Kamas. That report found Lucky Ones employed 17 workers with intellectual and developmental disabilities and had expanded to a second location in 2022, with a waiting list of about 40 prospective applicants as of a 2025 account.
Back in Twin Falls, the Daily Drip sits at 1879 Addison Ave E, with hours that differ between sources: KMVT reported the shop is open six days a week starting at 7 a.m., while the business's own website lists hours of 6 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday through Friday and 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. on weekends. Whichever schedule holds, the shop's early momentum — from the pickle lemonade craze to the community turnout at its grand opening — suggests Twin Falls has embraced both the drinks and the mission behind them.
