
Fitz's Bottling Company is a regional soda brand in the
St. Louis area. The flagship brand is its
root beer
Root beer is a sweet North American soft drink traditionally made using the root bark of the sassafras tree '' Sassafras albidum'' or the vine of ''Smilax ornata'' (known as sarsaparilla, also used to make a soft drink, sarsaparilla) as the ...
popularized by its
microbrewery
Craft beer is a beer that has been made by craft breweries. They produce smaller amounts of beer, typically less than large breweries, and are often independently owned. Such breweries are generally perceived and marketed as having an emphasis o ...
and
restaurant in
University City, Missouri
University City (colloquially, U. City) is an inner-ring suburb of the city of St. Louis in St. Louis County, in the U.S. state of Missouri. The population was measured at 35,065 by the 2020 census.
The city is one of the older suburbs in the ...
, on the historic
Delmar Loop
The Delmar Loop, often referred to by St. Louis residents simply as The Loop, is an entertainment, cultural and restaurant district in University City, Missouri and the adjoining western edge of St. Louis near Washington University in St. Louis an ...
.
History
Fitz's was originally a
drive-in
A drive-in is a facility (such as a restaurant or movie theater) where one can drive in with an automobile for service. At a drive-in restaurant, for example, customers park their vehicles and are usually served by staff who walk or rollersk ...
hamburger stand located on Brentwood Blvd, in the St. Louis suburb of
Richmond Heights. The root beer was first produced in 1947 and sold alongside hamburgers and fries. Beverage production was discontinued when the original eatery shut down in 1976. But fifteen years later, the root beer was brought back in its original recipe. In the early 1990s, a new location in the Delmar Loop was purchased and vintage bottling equipment installed.
Beverage line
In addition to
root beer
Root beer is a sweet North American soft drink traditionally made using the root bark of the sassafras tree '' Sassafras albidum'' or the vine of ''Smilax ornata'' (known as sarsaparilla, also used to make a soft drink, sarsaparilla) as the ...
, Fitz's produces other
soft drink flavors including diet root beer, voodoo (lemon-lime citrus)
cream soda, diet cream soda, grape pop,
orange pop, strawberry pop,
ginger ale
Ginger ale is a carbonated soft drink flavoured with ginger. It is consumed on its own or used as a mixer, often with spirit-based drinks. There are two main types of ginger ale. The golden style is credited to the Irish doctor Thomas Joseph ...
, hip hop pop (Raspberry Cola), and orange cream. The labels feature the locally familiar logo; its classic colors are red, white, and blue, but these colors change from one variety to the next to indicate and complement whatever flavor is in the bottle. The soda is made in the old-fashioned style of using
cane sugar
Sucrose, a disaccharide, is a sugar composed of glucose and fructose subunits. It is produced naturally in plants and is the main constituent of white sugar. It has the molecular formula .
For human consumption, sucrose is extracted and refined ...
(as opposed to
high fructose corn syrup
High-fructose corn syrup (HFCS), also known as glucose–fructose, isoglucose and glucose–fructose syrup, is a sweetener made from corn starch. As in the production of conventional corn syrup, the starch is broken down into glucose by enzy ...
).
Fitz's has produced some flavors which have been discontinued. These include Dr. Fizz (similar to Dr. Pepper with hints of black cherry), Birch Beer, and Lemonade Pop.
Restaurant
The restaurant is designed in the 1950s
art deco
Art Deco, short for the French ''Arts Décoratifs'', and sometimes just called Deco, is a style of visual arts, architecture, and product design, that first appeared in France in the 1910s (just before World War I), and flourished in the Unit ...
style and painted in bold colors. The interior features bar, booth, and table seating, with a connected patio for outdoor dining. The two-story building was originally a bank, with the bottling equipment in the space where the vault was located.
Along with their full line of soft drink flavors, Fitz's offers classic
American-style cuisine as well as various shakes and malts. Children's meals are served in boxes designed to resemble 1950s cars, a throwback to the dining experience of the original Fitz's drive-in. Fitz's appeared in ''
Rachael Ray's Tasty Travels''.
Expansion
From the late 1990s - 2000, Fitz's opened locations in
Chesterfield, MO and
Kansas City
The Kansas City metropolitan area is a bi-state metropolitan area anchored by Kansas City, Missouri. Its 14 counties straddle the border between the U.S. states of Missouri (9 counties) and Kansas (5 counties). With and a population of more ...
's
Union Station
A union station (also known as a union terminal, a joint station in Europe, and a joint-use station in Japan) is a railway station at which the tracks and facilities are shared by two or more separate railway companies, allowing passengers to ...
- both included restaurants and bottling plants. Initially successful, both restaurants eventually closed due to lackluster sales. They also have opened a location in South County in 2019.
Notable Employees
Joshua Finnell 2002–2003, Scholarly Communications Librarian at Los Alamos National Laboratory
Tyler Dustin 2002–2004, Associate Creative Director at Intouch Solutions
See also
*
IBC Root Beer, another St. Louis Root beer
References
External links
Fitz's Root Beer official website
{{Restaurants in St. Louis
American soft drinks
Root beer
Cuisine of St. Louis
Restaurants in Missouri
1947 establishments in Missouri
Companies based in St. Louis