Fitz's Bottling Company is a regional soda brand in the

St. Louis St. Louis () is the second-largest city in Missouri, United States. It sits near the confluence of the Mississippi and the Missouri Rivers. In 2020, the city proper had a population of 301,578, while the bi-state metropolitan area, which e ...

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 A restaurant is a business that prepares and serves food and drinks to customers. Meals are generally served and eaten on the premises, but many restaurants also offer take-out and food delivery services. Restaurants vary greatly in appearan ...

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 ...

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 rollerskat ...

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

, Fitz's produces other

soft drink A soft drink (see § Terminology for other names) is a drink A drink or beverage is a liquid intended for human consumption. In addition to their basic function of satisfying thirst, drinks play important roles in human culture. Common t ...

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 ref ...

(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 ''Rachael Ray's Tasty Travels'' is a television show based on cook Rachael Ray and her travels around the world. The show is similar to her 2002 Food Network show, ''$40 a Day'', however she is not restricted by a budget and showcases food from mo ...

''.

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 th ...

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

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