Featured Business: Rocket Fizz Soda Pop and Candy Shop

By Dana Ludvik

Rocket Fizz Soda Pop and Candy Shop specializes in selling novelty (and nearly forgotten) candies and soda pop in every flavor. It is the kind of place you can visit on a cold, dreary October day, and leave with a little spring in your step.

Whether you’re young or old, it is often hard to resist the simple pleasures of sweets and soda. Add in a mixture of cheeky gag gifts, nostalgic pop music, and a colorful backdrop of vintage-inspired tin signs and you can’t help but feel downright giddy.

Located on the corner of 14th & Pine Lake Road, Rocket Fizz boasts the largest soda pop and candy selection in the state of Nebraska, with over 500 types of bottled soda and more than 1,000 varieties of candy. Patrons can go on a treasure hunt as they inspect the hand-made wooden shelves filled to the brim with vividly packaged sweets and rows of carbonated concoctions. Many of these items look unfamiliar, but to some, they bring back fond memories.

On the “Great Wall of Soda,” there are 50 flavors of root beer alone, along with sarsaparillas, ginger beer, and birch beer. There are sodas from around the world, including Brazil, Jamaica, Mexico, all over Europe and the United States. If you are not a fan of traditional soda, there are seltzers, carbonated juices, energy drinks, and of course, Yoohoo.

There is even a diet section for diabetics and those who are concerned with calories. Just grab a cardboard divider and create your own unique variety pack. Most sodas are $1.89 each, with a special bonus of one free when you buy five.  Afterward, customers can bring back their empty bottles and Rocket Fizz will recycle them.
     
Classic goodies like Big Hunks, Slopokes, and Necco Wafers take their places among newer sweets like Push Pops and Toxic Waste sour candies. The sheer number of choices is almost overwhelming. Customers can also pick and choose from a rainbow of taffy that consists of 72 distinct flavors.
     
Rocket Fizz is independently-owned and operated by California native Damian Barton. Barton and his wife Christi moved to Lincoln three years ago by way of Las Vegas. Since opening the store on August 15th, Barton already has some “regulars” and customers traveling from across Nebraska to buy hard to find items.
     
“We had some people travel from Omaha and Grand Island yesterday who wanted to buy the old Dr. Pepper that has real sugar instead of high fructose syrup. It’s made using the original 1891 recipe in Dublin, Texas. It’s very popular,” said Barton.
     
Other coveted items include, Satellite Wafers, Valomilks and Sky Bars (formerly the 7-Up Bar).
     

Barton prides himself in carrying items that Lincolnites can’t find anywhere else, especially products that are made with pure cane sugar instead of corn syrup. If he doesn’t have it in stock, he makes every effort to special order what customers are searching for.

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“If they request it, I’ll find a way to get it here,” he said.
     
Barton hopes to bring people joy by offering a fun escape from an otherwise complicated world.  His enthusiasm for his work shows as he greets each visitor with a child-like smile. And it is important to him that his customers leave happy.
     
“I wanted to have a job where you never have an angry customer,” Barton said with a chuckle. “My goal is to make things simple for people. I want kids to really experience their childhood and for adults to relive their childhoods a little bit here--to bring back memories and have a good time.”
     
Personally, I had to use some serious restraint not to walk out of the shop with 25 items in hand. If you are as indecisive as me, you’ll undoubtedly end up being a repeat customer. In the end, I left with a Dublin Dr. Pepper (I had to experience what all the fuss is about), a Dutch Coca-Cola (for the funky hand-blown bottle), Dad’s Classic Creamy Orange Soda (a caffeine free choice), Australian Ginger Brew (sounded refreshing), an Idaho Spud (why not?), and a big smile on my face. 
     
Rocket Fizz is located at 1501 Pine Lake Road. Hours are 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. Monday-Saturday and 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Sundays. For more information, phone 328-FIZZ or visit www.myrocketfizz.com.

Comments

[Basil McJagger]

Great story!

[phylcnwy@aol.com]

This truly is a well-written and interesting story!!!! Good for you, Dana D. - I am looking forward to a trip to the Rocket Fizz Soda Pop and Candy Shop! First on my list to buy is a Valomilk! I love those -(they - as well as I) go back quite a few years!!!

[DeMisty]

Visited Rocket Fizz for the first time today because of this article. The place is as awesome as I thought it would be! Thanks for writing about it.
--DeMisty