Video about world's greatest soda pop store

Mayor Mike says: "John Nese is the owner of Soda Pop Stop pop only store in LA. Listening to him rattle off what makes or breaks a good soft drink, makes me thirsty. Listening to his passion about supporting the little man in the face of large corporate pressure in the marketplace is just plain refreshing."

Galcos Soda Pop Stop in LA

• [hiland]

  Soda Pop Stop lives up to the hype. Dropped $100+ last time i was there. Ouch.

• [devophill]

  And he didn’t even talk about the beer! Man, I love that place.

• [PaulR]

  My favorite place to get a soda pop is Willensky’s.
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wilensky%27s

  Sitting down at the counter with a ‘Special’ or two, drinking a hand-mixed soda and syrup (they’ll combine syrups for you – cola/orange, anyone?) and reading one of their free ‘take’em or leave’em’ used paperback books.

  Closed weekends, evenings, and during the construction holiday. Civilized people.

• [eagleapex]

  Oh man! stop making LA look so coooool! I’ll get the wanderlust and leave Philly for Coop, Mr. Jalopy, and Galco’s.
  I need to go do some Philly boosterism.

• [kiddr01]

  that man is ace – can’t crack enthusiasm like that.

• [jonathan levy]

  Pure ebullience. I rarely drink sodas, but am thirsting for some now.

• [Anonymous]

  DIABEETUS

• [Oxymoxy]

  This is down the street from my school! So weird, because this weekend some guys were talking about “this awesome soda store” and gave me some lenin-ade (a party in every bottle!) and cucumber soda. Awesome.

• [ill lich]

  I remember the Pop Shoppe– where else could you get pineapple or grapefruit or coconut soda back then (before Goya sodas were in the supermarket in most of middle America)? I remember some families in my neighborhood had cases of soda in the garage, and we always looked forward to birthday parties over their house.

• [mikerbaker]

  I love this store. I get a case of Jamaica’s Finest Ginger Beer: HOT HOT HOT. But the Dublin Dr. Pepper and the Bubble-Up are heart-breakingly awesome. I’m 47 – I drink one of these and I’m a barefoot kid on a summer day again.

• [Anonymous]

  You have to love his honesty. Diet??? “Drink less!” Wow, now that’s refreshing.

• [thechicgeek]

  After watching the video last night, I plunked down $60 for a 12 pack of Mr. Q Cumber soda. Expensive, sure. But I bet it’s going to be worth it.

  @eaglepex Philly has good things going for it. They’re just harder to find. There’s always the cheesesteaks, of course.

• [Stefan Jones]

  They don’t have Nehi.

  They do have Moxie . . . the original cough syrup and turpentine flavor!

  • [Chris Spurgeon]

    I’m pretty sure they do have Nehi, at least Nehi Grape.

• [weatherman]

  If there was ever a poster boy for the phrase “if you do what you love, you’ll never work a day in your life” it’s that guy. The film was really well done too – totally caught the enthusiasm this man has for soda. Just watching it made me happy.

• [Ernunnos]

  Never mind the soda, I love that economical HD cameras and YouTube make this kind of journalism possible. I’m sure there are lots of similar stories out there, just waiting to be found. And now I’ll have a chance to see many of them that I probably wouldn’t have had before.

• [Billistic]

  A friend of mine flew to LA for work reasons and checked this place out, he came back with a couple of bottles for us all to try.

  Fentimans. I had the Shandy. It’s probably one of the most beautiful things I’ve ever ingested.

  It’s brewed, so it’s like drinking a beer but the beer flavor replaced with this beautiful sweetness. If you live in LA get over there now.

  • [xaxa]

    They sell Fentiman’s at my workplace (also at Tesco and Sainsbury’s). I don’t like the cola, it’s too acidic, although the others (ginger, lemon, orange etc) are excellent. And dandelion and burdock isn’t just for adults! that was the first ‘fizzy drink’ I ever had.

    I don’t know of any store like this near where I live (London), but I recognised a few of the bottles shown — corner shops or the “ethnic” sections of supermarkets usually have something a little different, and I make a point of buying it when it’s available.

• [Robert]

  Wowzers! After watching this, I had to visit the website and buy stuff. Sadly, I had to pay UPS as much again as I bought to ship it cross-country. Sometimes I wish I lived near LA. It’s like awesome is manufactured in LA and San Francisco. Instead I’m stuck with Grody Ol’ Baltimore and Filthadelphia :(

  If it weren’t for the taxes and the bankrupt state and the high real estate prices, I’d move!

• [Nadreck]

  Brings new meaning to the phrase a bubbly personality!

• [NJ]

  I started playing this video and scrolled down and
  watched the video of the mantis eating while listening
  to Mr. Nese talkin’ ’bout bottled wonderfulness.

• [SeattlePete]

  Original Moxie holds a special place in my heart. Growing up in New England, it was easy to find in most stores and was THE “tonic” I grew up drinking. The fact that it was so prevalent in New England, and in particular Maine (where they still have an annual Moxie Parade), never struck me as odd until later in life. Once I moved to Seattle and tried to find some I figured out that all of the New England Moxie was actually brewed and bottled in Atlanta. For a while it was possible to find Moxie out here – Real Soda was distributing it to certain local shops, but Moxie is a hard sell. You can still find the Cream Soda, but that’s not the same.

  Bubble Up is excellent.

• [jpixl]

  I love Galco’s! Mr. Nese guided me toward an incredible ginger beer, Jamaica’s Finest. They had toned down the heat at one point and he got them to amp it back up under a new name, Jaimaica’s Finest Hot! Hot! Hot! I live very close to the Burbank Rockt Fizz, but still think it’s worth the drive down to Galco’s.

• [adamnvillani]

  John Nese is really a great guy; he’ll show you all around and knows everything about soda. I live an hour away (on the weekend) now, but still visit every now and then. I always pick up some Cheerwine and some Moxie Original Elixir, as well as an assortment of other things. I don’t know if they always have it, but I’m pretty sure I’ve seen Nehi there before.

• [Anonymous]

  Funny, I was just there Sunday! I too am approx ~1 hour away… I loaded up on the Cucumber Soda, can’t get enough. I always leave with a truck and a backseat loaded, well over $100. It is by far one of the most pleasant places to go, because it’s so simple, and every aisle is overflowing with potential cravings met.

• [neurolux]

  If you’re ever in Dallas, check out The Soda Gallery (used to be Ifs, Ands, and Butts). Same kind of place as Galco’s. http://www.thesodagallery.com/

• [_kevitivity]

  I’m a huge fan of Galco’s. It’s the only place I can consistently find Afri-Cola. It’s just a quick drive from here in Pasadena too.

• [Marcelo]

  I *heart* Galco’s. You can buy CASES of Dublin Dr. Pepper there (that’s the cane sugar Dr. Pepper made in Dublin, Texas).

  There’s another place in Burbank that I go to a lot because it’s only blocks from where I live called Rocket Fizz. It’s not as supremely awesome as Galco’s and you can’t buy in bulk, but it has a lot of the same quality sodas and a lot of great candy too. And a vintage pinball machine you can play for free!

  • [spstewart]

    I’m glad to see that someone outside of Texas is able to enjoy the greatest soda in the world. For years there was some kind of stipulation placed on the plant in Dublin that prohibited them from selling their Dr. Pepper outside of that area.

    I live about an hours drive from Dublin, so when it started hitting the stores here I was thrilled (although the drive there was worth it). And after watching this video I want to visit Galco’s.

• [Billegible]

  The Pop Shoppe has sort of come back in Canada at least. I nearly had a cardiac arrest of pure joy when I saw shelves of Pop Shoppe bottles at my local Zellers (for Montrealers, the one in the basement of Alexis Nihon Plaza). They had cola, lime rickey, black cherry, pineapple… nom nom.

• [2k]

  Thank you.

• [igpajo]

  Anyone else remember the Pop Shops that used to be around back in the 70′s. Had something like 30 flavors of soda and you could mix and match your case of bottles. Real cheap and pretty good stuff. When you were done, you brought the bottles back to the shop and get more. They’d steam clean the bottles and refill them right there. Used to love going there with my mom and picking out all my favorite flavors.

  • [80slover]

    I remember them. My family LOVED that place.

  • [80slover]

    I forgot…Ours was in Virginia, Mn. The cream soda was my fav.

• [thequickbrownfox]

  Love a good lemon soda/sparkling mineral water.

  Best with quinine added for extra sharpness.

• [candycritic]

  This is the greatest thing ever. I wish we had places like this in Canada.

• [7-how-7]

  the cucumber soda alone is worth the trip.

• [FreakCitySF]

  This was awesome. I’m in SF so I’ll have to figure out how to get a few of these shipped to me.

• [Anonymous]

  I remember buying Pop Shop Pop soda at the gas station when I was a kid in the seventies. is it still available?

• [Raian]

  I can only imagine all the delicious (alcoholic) drinks you could make with some of these interesting and unique sodas.

  I am definitely going to their website (sodapopstop.com) to order some…