Cheer-wined
08-08-2008, 06:22 PM
A couple of weeks ago I had a roadtrip to St. Louis, here are some of the side notes & pics...
In Louisville, RC was selling 16 oz cans of A&W, Big Red, RC, Sunkist and 7up. I noticed that the old production coding format (A, B, etc.) has been replaced with the 2-letter system, LV is now used by the RC plant in Louisville. They were also producing these retro type bottles of Big Red/Diet Big Red, similar to the A&W and Vernor’s bottles that came out recently.
I stopped in Tell City, IN to see if the Frostop was still open, but it had closed. The root beer barrel was still intact (and visible) inside the restaurant. I saw a couple in Louisiana earlier this year that had met the same fate.
Before getting to St. Louis. I stopped at Excel Bottling in Breese, IL, to buy some Double Cola. Super nice folks there, it’s great to see a family run bottler doing well. Their Ski 4-packs are below, with the 50’s style logo. I was glad to find Cherry Ski there also.
The Fitz’s delivery truck was parked outside of their restaurant/bottling plant in the University City section of St. Louis. The food at the restaurant was average but the root beer’s pretty good. The bottling line is visible from the restaurant area. The Lewis Osterweis sodas were also made by Fitz for Schlafly Brewing (soon-to-be the largest American owned brewery in St. Louis … )
In Louisville, RC was selling 16 oz cans of A&W, Big Red, RC, Sunkist and 7up. I noticed that the old production coding format (A, B, etc.) has been replaced with the 2-letter system, LV is now used by the RC plant in Louisville. They were also producing these retro type bottles of Big Red/Diet Big Red, similar to the A&W and Vernor’s bottles that came out recently.
I stopped in Tell City, IN to see if the Frostop was still open, but it had closed. The root beer barrel was still intact (and visible) inside the restaurant. I saw a couple in Louisiana earlier this year that had met the same fate.
Before getting to St. Louis. I stopped at Excel Bottling in Breese, IL, to buy some Double Cola. Super nice folks there, it’s great to see a family run bottler doing well. Their Ski 4-packs are below, with the 50’s style logo. I was glad to find Cherry Ski there also.
The Fitz’s delivery truck was parked outside of their restaurant/bottling plant in the University City section of St. Louis. The food at the restaurant was average but the root beer’s pretty good. The bottling line is visible from the restaurant area. The Lewis Osterweis sodas were also made by Fitz for Schlafly Brewing (soon-to-be the largest American owned brewery in St. Louis … )