Swig ‘dirty soda’ shop opens; grand opening Friday
Customer Kylee Wright is waited on at the counter at the new Swig soda shop in Clinton by staff member Kali Valentyne, as other employees look on. The new store opened Jan. 20 on North Charles G. Seivers Boulevard near I-75. (photo:G. Chambers Williams III )
Its doors opened to customers on Tuesday, Jan. 20.
To help introduce the business to the people of the Clinton area, Swig plans to hold a grand-opening celebration from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. on Friday (Jan. 30), said Ava Bunch, a shift leader at the business.
“We will offer a free drink and cookies to everyone who comes in on Friday,” she told The Courier News.
This is the second Swig location in Anderson County, The first one opened in Oak Ridge, at 848 Main St. W., in July, District Manager John Dougherty said.
“Dirty soda” refers to Swig’s signature carbonated soft drinks that are mixed with flavored syrups, along with ingredients such as cream or half and half, and fruit purees.
The Clinton location is the Utah-based company’s sixth in the East Tennessee area since June 2024, when it opened its first store in Alcoa.
Since then, other Swig shops have opened in West Hills off Kingston Pike in Knoxville, Hixson (Chattanooga) and Fort Oglethorpe, Georgia, (also the Chattanooga area).
Clinton issued a building permit on Dec. 3 to Swig’s franchise owner, Taylor Hayden, for the interior remodeling work, which was done by Real-Time Construction, LLC, of Powell.
Dougherty said a seventh area Swig location is under construction in Johnson City.
The local franchisee, based in Knoxville, has the rights to 25 locations, most of them in East Tennessee, he added.
“We’re excited to be coming to Clinton,” Dougherty said in December. He is a graduate of Anderson County High School, and said he has been with the company since last year.
Swig, founded in St. George, Utah, in 2010, has recently been expanding beyond Utah, with the East Tennessee franchisee among the newest to build stores.
Along with its eclectic menu of specialty sodas, Swig sells fresh-baked chocolate-chip cookies and sugar cookies, and pretzel bites. Hot chocolate is also available.
The Clinton location has inside service and limited seating, along with a drive-through window behind the store. It’s next door to Megan Nails and two doors down from Firehouse Subs, both in the same building.
Hours are 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. Monday-Thursday, 8 a.m.-10 p.m. Friday, 9 a.m.-10 p.m. Saturday, and 11 a.m.-7 p.m. Sunday. The store will be closed on major holidays.
Swig was founded in Utah, mainly to offer an alternative to Starbucks as a non-alcoholic, coffee-free treat for members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS), who generally abstain from drinking coffee, tea and alcohol.
While Swig isn’t a “Mormon company,” it became a popular business in a region with a large LDS population.
In 2023, Swig signed franchise agreements across seven states: Florida, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Arkansas, Missouri, and Idaho to begin its expansion beyond Utah.
