Avery's Olde Soda Shoppe

Ok, I admit, the name in my title was embellished a little bit. The real name is Avery's Beverages; but, if you've ever seen this place, you'd feel the nostalgia, too! It's been in business since 1904 and it looks like very little has changed since they bottled their first soft drink.

There were so many flavors! Not all of them are listed on this sign, but a good many are. They also had some fun, just-for-the-heck-of-it bottles called "scary sodas" or "nasty sodas" with such colorful names as "Cat Piss" (Pineapple) and "Alien Slime" (Lemon-Lime) and hilarious labels.

Just inside and to the right was the bottling machine. To this day, a person still has to manually operate the contraption.

The shop itself was like a walk through history. There were old machines, all kinds of soft drink signs and advertising memorabilia, antique toys, rustic bottle boxes, and a very peculiar display case of all sorts of objects that have been left in their bottle boxes through the years. Everything from photographs, childrens' toys, and safety pins to bullet casings, car keys, and hand tools sat in these lost-and-found boxes. And, get this, they still use an antique cash register to attend customers. Very cool.

I love the nostalgia of old places like this. It was very nice of the workers to let me wander around taking pictures. If you're ever in the area of New Britain, Connecticut, totally check it out.

----- ----- -----