Fountain Drink Dissertating

Sometimes when you attempt to write daily blog posts after months of barely writing a thing, you have to dig deep for inspiration ... deep into the bottom of your crowded, messy pit of a purse where your phone is always hiding.*  Then you find that phone, scroll through the 1,362 photos saved there since August and look for some images to use as blog fodder.

May I suggest a writing prompt?  Ahem, here goes:  What sort of soda fountain are you most happy/unhappy to see in dining establishments you frequent?

Fountain A

 

I captured this photo of Fountain A at a Potbelly near Northgate Mall in Cincinnati, OH in July of 2015.  I would characterize Fountain A as a "people pleaser fountain."  First things first, Diet Coke is available.  That's all that is needed for me to be happy about the fountain drinks on offer.  I don't share the passionate feelings of some about Diet Dr. Pepper (I'm a regular Pepper, all the way -- the only non-diet soda I will drink), but two people dear to me are DDP-lovers so I like to see a fountain that they'd be really excited about.  A bold move would be a Diet Mountain Dew tap.  I wouldn't touch it, but another someone I love would be thrilled.  I don't want to drink Diet Pepsi, obviously, but I can respect, if not understand, that there is a population that loves Diet Pepsi in the same way that I love Diet Coke.  Potbelly wants to please them, which is nice, but they're not fools at Potbelly.  They know that Pepsi/Diet Pepsi can't anchor a fountain.  The food has to be pretty awesome for me to purposely dine at an establishment that only serves Pepsi products.

Fountain B

Fountain B is not in the "people pleaser" category.  Fountain B is "curated with conviction."  I snapped this pic in October at an In-N-Out Burger in Petaluma, CA.  I don't know the ins-in-outs of beverage distributorship in California, but it seems like some party lines were crossed to gather these fountain offerings.  Someone was like, "Well, for sure we need Coke and Diet Coke.  We'll go with 7-Up for our clear beverage and Dr. Pepper because it's freaking fantastic."  Now, notice that Coke and Diet Coke each take up two spots, a choice that I suspect reflects more than just response to demand.  This move says, sure we could use those two spots for something inferior (like an orange soda), something disgusting (like a blue sports drink), or something trendy (like a fruit-flavored ice tea or a flavored water), but we privilege quality over variety.  Boom.

The discussion of the ice on offer on each fountain is really its own separate topic.

Well, that was fun.  Email me a pic of a fountain that makes you happy/unhappy, and I'd be eager to offer my analysis and impressions. 


*No, I don't have a special spot for my phone in my purse, even though my husband has made the suggestion several times.