Thursday, September 1, 2011

Fountain Knowledge

Two things I learned about soda fountains this morning from the same NPR story:

  • They're experiencing a revival, usually at trendy night spots where mixologists mine old books for recipes and ingredients like acid phosphates and bitters.
  • They were added to drugstores back in the "old days" so that people could mix the foul-tasting they had just purchased into something that tasted good.
I'm not sure the revival has hit the Twin Cities yet. But we do have St. Paul Corner Drug, at Snelling and St. Clair, which still has its original fountain.

St. Paul Corner Drugstore awning and front door

4 comments:

Michael Leddy said...

My wife Elaine just told me about the NPR story. It's nice to know that the fountain is having a revival, even if it's kinda artisanal in nature. We have a drugstore w/fountain (old, original) in a town about 25 miles away.

Is that a Rexall color scheme on your store?

Daughter Number Three said...

I'm not sure about the color scheme -- it could be.

Crystal said...

The NYTimes recently had a similar story about soda fountains' comeback. And a related blog post includes a flow chart of the different types of fountain treats!

Daughter Number Three said...

Cool links, Crystal. Who knew you were a soda fountain fiend?