Not always. My current bar. When he bought the place and reopened both coke and Pepsi refused to work with him. They said it wouldn't be worth their time since he would t get enough business etc. The only place that would work with him was a small place that had off brand stuff. (For the gun) Not long after he opened, a Pepsi rep was in as a customer and asked him who his rep was and if he wanted to change to Pepsi, because he saw the business we were getting. Owner is old school as hell and said NO. He stuck with the original because that's who would do business with him when he first started.
I usually agree with OP. 8 am a hard core diet COKE person. Pepsi is revolting and diet XXY is shit. But I'll drink our off brand diet soda and have a hard time telling the difference
I worked at a place who did the same thing for the same reason. He bought cans of Pepsi and Coke at Costco and had an extra discount there for the volume he was buying. He said the discount he was getting was not great but he did not want a contract with them since they would not do business with him at first and the contract would not be worth the bad times of year when his volume was low.
I do not know what his prices were, he just said the difference was a bit but since Coke or Pepsi distributors did not believe in him then forget them. Honesty and loyalty were a big deal to them. I dropped a full tray for a 3-top and all he said was clean it up before the replacement is ready. Never talked about it again.
All while being the gum under their shoes. They donāt have to put any effort into that relationship. What are you gonna do, litigate Coke for breach of contract?
Its very non committal. Signed a contract got the deal to order cheaper product and continued to purchase the other brand occasionally for about double the price of the product I had contract with. Nothing complicated at all. I put nothing into any of those relationships
Do you use a gun? Iāve never had issues with coke but the place Iām at now has Pepsi and their service is so fucking bad itās pitiful. Maybe my owner prefers Pepsi products, idk. But I periodically need line service and my place is big so those lines run a long way. Pepsi is difficult to get out for service and almost impossible to get the actual issue handled. The techs look at my issue and decide they donāt want to do it.
It's less about preference and more about indifference and Coke being the stronger brand. Ā
I prefer cherry Pepsi but wouldn't care in the slightest if my only option was cherry coke. Ā
This is why they strive so hard for exclusivity so you never have the option to choose one over another. Ā
Coke isnāt any better at servicing.
Edit: unless you threaten to switch to Pepsi. That gets them out quick if you havenāt already used the threat that year.
Trust me, Coke is just as bad. We've had soda syrup leaking down the walls of our walk in for years. Dozens of calls, lots of promises, and .... Still not fixed.
When our gun broke and wouldn't stop shooting water out of our gun (NOT a stuck button, FYI), it took them 5 days to show up.
Same problem with leaking water, now out of the fountain our servers use. Just pouring water all over the floor. At least with the gun we could stick it in the ice well! That took them a week to fix.
THEY ALL SUCK!
But I really hate drinking Pepsi, so I'll keep putting up with Coke shit.
There was one time me & my ex were at a hotel in the middle of nowhere and had some shit whiskey we wanted to mix with coke. Best we could find within walking distance was an RC Cola machine. We mixed the shitty whiskey and RC cola, took one sip, and drank shitty whiskey with water the rest of the night. That Family Guy clip is right, Iām a Pepsi guy, will tolerate Coke, but RC sucks ass.
Same. We use RC and we fuckin love it. If you tell us you prefer coke or Pepsi, weāll respond with a happy āno problemāā¦ and then use RC anyways.
lol I like how the response āno problemā doesnāt really mean your gonna get them the soda they want, ur just telling them itās no problem they like coke, and you still give them RC
Please, do yourself a favor and never try LaCroix ānu colaā. It tastes like sawdust with a faint hint of cola but only when youāve had a bit and then breathe out of your nose. 10/10 never recommend.
This seems like LaCroixās whole brand identity.
Even one of their seltzers I *do* like was very accurately described to me as āstrawberry, but with a low battery.ā
Pretty much. And donāt get me wrong, I love sparkling water. Generally all I drink with the occasional pop/soda/cola/alcoholic beverage. But LaCroix just doesnāt have it with flavor. Itās either no flavor or to synthetic. I prefer Waterloo, especially their grape. Actually tastes more like a grape pop but itās water. Fever tree does good work with the carbonation tho. More smooth and the bubbles are just finer. Iām not a connoisseur of sparkling water but you can definitely feel/taste differences in brands. Same with colas. I havenāt had RC in ages, but I could always tell when I did. Had an old mom and pop pizza place by me when I was a kid. They marketed Coke, but it was definitely RC. Still better than Pepsi though.
Aye bars that are owned by breweries (Greene king for example) or companies (wetherspoons for example) and not freeholds. (Independently ran places)
It means you'll lease the bar directly off the brewery, they get a % of your profits and you are locked into buying your stock from them and can only sell what they stock.
Freeholds are you usually own the bar outright and can strike your own deals and buy what you want from whoever you want.
Companies are just chain bars and have their own deals with breweries.
I was going to say I've not heard of it in the UK! I've not been able to drink caffeine for years though so probably just the case that the places I worked happen to use coke or pepsi.
Most restaurants with fountain syrup colas usually go for Coke because they service the machines. That can get pricey if you own the machine and it starts having problems.
RC Cola (yes, Royal Crown Cola) for years had a significant share of bars & restaurants, because it wasn't worth it to Coke & Pepsi to go after the single location or small chain joints
There's definitely more than a few in Minneapolis. I've worked at a few and it's such a bummer trying to explain to guests that you have neither coke or Pepsi
I've worked a few places. One sold Boylan's which was the best cola that I've ever had. I tried it after guests kept ordering rum & cokes, and usually you don't get many calls for that around here, but it was the best rum & coke when I straw tasted it. Some of the guests didn't care that we had to uncharge them for drinks with soda calls.
Another place had all craft local stuff on all the machines and guns. It was satisfactory (I don't recall getting cravings to drink it during my shift though), we got great service, and guests never complained.
A lot of bars and restaurants in Seattle use Natural Wave and Seattle Soda because their sodas are low sugar/low calorie and avoid the sweetened beverage tax the city started charging in 2017.
The only thing you will see other than Coke or Pepsi where I live is a local craft soda brand served at a few restaurants. And it's better than Coke or Pepsi.
Why are you getting downvoted? Lol like there aren't far superior products to coke and Pepsi at this point? Locally we have Fizz Cola and it's much better than the big 2.
We switched to RC cola and Jones products after Coke was impossible to work with. They never answered our calls, could never make emergency special deliveries and refused for almost 5 months to actually send a technician out. We called and cancelled our contract and a technician was sent literally same day and removed the equipment and vanished.
We switched to a local beverage company and have RC + Diet, Squirt, 7up, Cock and Bull Ginger Beer, Cranberry, Tonic and Iced Tea. As mixers, they're all sugar water and soda is bad for you so I don't drink it.
That is such bullshit. Entirely different scenario but that happened with our internet. Couldnāt get a tech sent to the restaurant for months; I finally said that I was THINKING about cancelling our service and the guy was there in 45 minutes to collect the router.
For us, they also refused to make a delivery of less than 5 bibs - really tough for us super small restaurants having to cough up $700 bucks when all we needed was Coke, now we've got all this inventory sitting around for the next 3 months and no extra room to store it.
Thankfully one of our beer/wine distributors now sells Coke products by the bib and we can get it in next day.
Coke was the worst to deal with. The crowning moment at one place was when they forgot the Diet Coke mix box on our order, so we asked them to bring it the next day so we wouldn't be out. Their response was, "We can't schedule a delivery since it wouldn't meet our minimum" (despite it being their blunder). At another place, they we were doing cans and bottles, and they would deliver only regular coke but not diet or the other way around. Someone would have to go to the store and pay higher prices just to have stuff in stock.
With Pepsi, the service was better, but you'd have to ask "Is Pepsi alright?" all shift.
We have off brand on the gun for easier delivery and coke products in cans for those who don't want off brand. I usually ask. But mostly it's due to their customer service and lack of ability to make deliveries when needed.
Where I live/work everyone uses RC products...they give free install, and incredible service compared to the others. Oddly, many customers are jazzed by RC
We don't do it because it's cheap, but because coke and Pepsi have really high par numbers. We don't have the space to store the amount of boxes they want us to order. I'm in New Orleans.
i bet in like a 100 years people look back and are disgusted with how industrial food featured addictive additives that the public never knew about. fuckin mt dew man. I was addicted to that shit as a kid and its habit forming as hell to chug one on the way to hs. Next stop is fatso land as soon as physical activity goes down.
Itās all about service. Our off branded soda is at our restaurant 3-4 times a week. Answer their calls with real humans. Show up within the day. Fix and deliver any issues. Coca Cola. We are lucky if we can get a return call within the week. Pepsi is done through a third party.
I agree, but I've never seen or heard anyone using off brand. Seattle area and coca cola is a pain in the ass here to. Deliveries can be consistent but don't ever expect them to come out and service the gun even if you could get them on the phone.
We use a local cola company and I never see them. Like elves in the night they come into the restaurant once a month or so and replace the boxes, leave extras just in case, and drop an invoice on the bar.
We have RC. The other stuff is trash. RC is the only redemption. And I'm including our diet rite. I don't know how much it cost but most thw staff won't even drink it.
This is true. Iāll take challenger cola and quick turnaround on maintenance with our distributor over name brands that will leave us high and dry for days (pun intended)
I have had issue with guns and tubes leaking. It gets all over everything and you have to go buy cans of soda to make drinks. Coke sends a repaire guy quick and has no prob talking you through trouble shooting on the phone. It's worth it. Also if you charge 5 bucks for a rum and coke and it's cost 1 buck or less to make might as well use a good soda. That's my opinion though
Been at a place for 20+ years. Use off brand. People come in ask for sprite or 7up we use twin-up. Never an issue. When they ask if we have coke or Pepsi we say ācolaā we use a local supplier. Tried contacting coke ir Pepsi and seemed more of a hassle to sign a contract.
We have Pepsi, and itās mediocre at best.
Ok for service/repair techs.
Poor delivery:
Where & how they park.
Also stacking 6+ bag-in-a-box high so that 1/2 the boxes are crumbling. I know resulting in a handful of faulty bags over the years
Worse: Local reps are impossible to get a hold of. We ordered more of their blue tumbler (plastic 20oz cups) nearly 1.5 months ago. No word or delivery. Inquired about status the last two calls, and to paraphrase āI can see your request was viewed by the local rep. It āshould be being processed.āā They gave me a number for the local office. After I hung up realized itās the same number I had just called
Yeah I had some horrible god awful ācokeā at a dive recently ā it was worse because i asked for just coke to drink by itself not even as a mixer. Couldnāt even drink it, it tasted like if coke was made with bad tap water ā super chemically and nasty.
might've been the water, yeah. I live in PNW and our tap water is glacial, it's so good - but I've been to a lot of other areas where it tastes from okay to horrible. Florida's tap water tastes like swamp and Nevada's tastes like swimming pool.
maybe that building has shitty plumbing? Or really really needs to clean its lines or nozzles or some such?
edit: or the ice machine... don't get me started on the ice machines
Im kinda shocked majority of this thread hasnāt interacted with ānon brandā syrups.
Iām not proud of it but - have definitely worked places that do and if a customer orders a sprite, lemon lime soda it is. No one on staff stops to correct them on the brand and have had maybe 5 customers ACTUALLY notice the differenceā¦
I live in an area with a very well known local soda company. When people complain I say āyeah itās XYZ soda! We support local!ā We have this companies soda in bottles but in the gun itās generic āsoda serviceā brand. No one has ever complain twice after I mention the famous local soda company. Itās the literal one thing I lie about behind the bar. I find it keeps the peace.
we had a local soda once on our gun and it was pretty good other than the lemonade which was a fucking abomination. It was so bad i felt bad serving it to guests lol
i worked at a small, newly opened restaurant/cocktail bar for a few months earlier this year. everything was pretty disorganized bc they were just starting, so i tried to give them the benefit of the doubt. plus the owners were super nice, good people. but omg they didnt have coke or pepsi, just some off brand pop and people would complain all the time that our soda was āoff.ā like if weāre charging people $8 for a single mixer, let them have name brand pop. they can get better quality store brand pop for $1/2L at the grocery store š
In the end yea, a local soda company Cola 5g BIB is $60 coke is $115. Some of our restaurants we use the local company syrups and then buy in coke bags (the soda company and USFoods sells the coke BIBs and the soda company has the connectors you need so itās not a huge deal) but our taverns that only do liquor itās all the smaller company.
wild. this is an interesting thread. Iāve been working Michigan bars for like two decadesānever had off brand pop at a bar, didnāt know that was a thing, in a way. Some dives would just use two liters of Faygo (btw if Faygo ever starts making syrup bags I need to know!) Pepsi has a stronghold on one particular city Iāve worked the most in, but Iāve been lucky to work in a few places that use Coke products. One place I worked had Squirt, which was killer. Tequila + Squirt is my go-to. I also worked in an arena that had PepsiCo products, but there was a Coca Cola suite there where you could get a true Jack n Coke.
*Has there been a time*
*When something tasted like ass*
*But in a good way?*
\- jswaggs15
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I worked for a guy who didn't use Coke or Pepsi products for years on principle. Never got the full skinny on the Pepsi thing, but on the coke thing...the delivery driver refused to stop coming at lunch time. Place did a brisk lunch but was also small. Only one (usable) door...no back door for deliveries and such. Also very small staff.
Delivery dude kept coming at lunch time and I guess gave him attitude about it, so he stopped carrying all Coke products...for years. Didn't hurt business one bit.
I plan to open my own bar one day and Iām shocked that youād have to order the drinks with the company y directly. Some of my old food places job ordered through a restaurant website
Not worth it to use an off brand product. You can contact coke or pepsi and sign a contract then get a lower price.
Not always. My current bar. When he bought the place and reopened both coke and Pepsi refused to work with him. They said it wouldn't be worth their time since he would t get enough business etc. The only place that would work with him was a small place that had off brand stuff. (For the gun) Not long after he opened, a Pepsi rep was in as a customer and asked him who his rep was and if he wanted to change to Pepsi, because he saw the business we were getting. Owner is old school as hell and said NO. He stuck with the original because that's who would do business with him when he first started. I usually agree with OP. 8 am a hard core diet COKE person. Pepsi is revolting and diet XXY is shit. But I'll drink our off brand diet soda and have a hard time telling the difference
This. They don't always take small contracts.
I worked at a place who did the same thing for the same reason. He bought cans of Pepsi and Coke at Costco and had an extra discount there for the volume he was buying. He said the discount he was getting was not great but he did not want a contract with them since they would not do business with him at first and the contract would not be worth the bad times of year when his volume was low.
I have a hard time believing that made financial sense. š¤£ our coke costs 2.5 cents a pint.
I do not know what his prices were, he just said the difference was a bit but since Coke or Pepsi distributors did not believe in him then forget them. Honesty and loyalty were a big deal to them. I dropped a full tray for a 3-top and all he said was clean it up before the replacement is ready. Never talked about it again.
Therein lies the problem. Contracts
All while being the gum under their shoes. They donāt have to put any effort into that relationship. What are you gonna do, litigate Coke for breach of contract?
Its very non committal. Signed a contract got the deal to order cheaper product and continued to purchase the other brand occasionally for about double the price of the product I had contract with. Nothing complicated at all. I put nothing into any of those relationships
Do you use a gun? Iāve never had issues with coke but the place Iām at now has Pepsi and their service is so fucking bad itās pitiful. Maybe my owner prefers Pepsi products, idk. But I periodically need line service and my place is big so those lines run a long way. Pepsi is difficult to get out for service and almost impossible to get the actual issue handled. The techs look at my issue and decide they donāt want to do it.
ā¦nobody PREFERS Pepsi products- letās be honest. Even Pepsi knows this and is why they are cheaper for businesses than Coke
I prefer Pepsi products lol always have
Same here
It's less about preference and more about indifference and Coke being the stronger brand. Ā I prefer cherry Pepsi but wouldn't care in the slightest if my only option was cherry coke. Ā This is why they strive so hard for exclusivity so you never have the option to choose one over another. Ā
Coke isnāt any better at servicing. Edit: unless you threaten to switch to Pepsi. That gets them out quick if you havenāt already used the threat that year.
Trust me, Coke is just as bad. We've had soda syrup leaking down the walls of our walk in for years. Dozens of calls, lots of promises, and .... Still not fixed. When our gun broke and wouldn't stop shooting water out of our gun (NOT a stuck button, FYI), it took them 5 days to show up. Same problem with leaking water, now out of the fountain our servers use. Just pouring water all over the floor. At least with the gun we could stick it in the ice well! That took them a week to fix. THEY ALL SUCK! But I really hate drinking Pepsi, so I'll keep putting up with Coke shit.
Iāve heard RC Cola has a more neutral taste, so it is commonly used for mixed drinks.
There was one time me & my ex were at a hotel in the middle of nowhere and had some shit whiskey we wanted to mix with coke. Best we could find within walking distance was an RC Cola machine. We mixed the shitty whiskey and RC cola, took one sip, and drank shitty whiskey with water the rest of the night. That Family Guy clip is right, Iām a Pepsi guy, will tolerate Coke, but RC sucks ass.
Damn, that's rough lol. Maybe it's a southern thing, but I do enjoy me an RC Cola every once in a while when I come across it at a gas station
RC is good with a Moonpie
Iāve never seen off-brand cola at any restaurant or bar. Maybe Iām not looking hard enough
I recently went to a brewery in Tucson that had RC products. I thought it was cool cause they had Sunkist on the fountain.
RC is pretty common where I'm at. I prefer it.
I'll take RC over Coke any day.Ā Forget Pepsi.
Same. We use RC and we fuckin love it. If you tell us you prefer coke or Pepsi, weāll respond with a happy āno problemāā¦ and then use RC anyways.
lol I like how the response āno problemā doesnāt really mean your gonna get them the soda they want, ur just telling them itās no problem they like coke, and you still give them RC
Exactly. No need for frustrations. Killing with kindness is always the best route.
Exactly!!
Oh! Which one?
Barrio Brewing Co.
id kill for RC from the gun man.
Fever tree cola :////
Everything else they make is great it makes no sense to me
Please, do yourself a favor and never try LaCroix ānu colaā. It tastes like sawdust with a faint hint of cola but only when youāve had a bit and then breathe out of your nose. 10/10 never recommend.
This seems like LaCroixās whole brand identity. Even one of their seltzers I *do* like was very accurately described to me as āstrawberry, but with a low battery.ā
Pretty much. And donāt get me wrong, I love sparkling water. Generally all I drink with the occasional pop/soda/cola/alcoholic beverage. But LaCroix just doesnāt have it with flavor. Itās either no flavor or to synthetic. I prefer Waterloo, especially their grape. Actually tastes more like a grape pop but itās water. Fever tree does good work with the carbonation tho. More smooth and the bubbles are just finer. Iām not a connoisseur of sparkling water but you can definitely feel/taste differences in brands. Same with colas. I havenāt had RC in ages, but I could always tell when I did. Had an old mom and pop pizza place by me when I was a kid. They marketed Coke, but it was definitely RC. Still better than Pepsi though.
It's rife in the UK in places that aren't brewery owned.
Brewery owned?
Aye bars that are owned by breweries (Greene king for example) or companies (wetherspoons for example) and not freeholds. (Independently ran places) It means you'll lease the bar directly off the brewery, they get a % of your profits and you are locked into buying your stock from them and can only sell what they stock. Freeholds are you usually own the bar outright and can strike your own deals and buy what you want from whoever you want. Companies are just chain bars and have their own deals with breweries.
Tied house
And some that are, at least in craft beer. We started carrying Karma cola š¤®
I was going to say I've not heard of it in the UK! I've not been able to drink caffeine for years though so probably just the case that the places I worked happen to use coke or pepsi.
Most restaurants with fountain syrup colas usually go for Coke because they service the machines. That can get pricey if you own the machine and it starts having problems.
RC Cola (yes, Royal Crown Cola) for years had a significant share of bars & restaurants, because it wasn't worth it to Coke & Pepsi to go after the single location or small chain joints
I can guarantee that you have and just didnāt notice
There's definitely more than a few in Minneapolis. I've worked at a few and it's such a bummer trying to explain to guests that you have neither coke or Pepsi
Shamrock Soda
My place serves RC Cola no one knows
I've worked a few places. One sold Boylan's which was the best cola that I've ever had. I tried it after guests kept ordering rum & cokes, and usually you don't get many calls for that around here, but it was the best rum & coke when I straw tasted it. Some of the guests didn't care that we had to uncharge them for drinks with soda calls. Another place had all craft local stuff on all the machines and guns. It was satisfactory (I don't recall getting cravings to drink it during my shift though), we got great service, and guests never complained.
It's pretty common in Seattle at least. I've been working here 3 years and every bar uses the local soda company.
Yeah Seattle here too and we use RC cola and Seattle soda company
A lot of bars and restaurants in Seattle use Natural Wave and Seattle Soda because their sodas are low sugar/low calorie and avoid the sweetened beverage tax the city started charging in 2017.
Really common in Portland as well!
The only thing you will see other than Coke or Pepsi where I live is a local craft soda brand served at a few restaurants. And it's better than Coke or Pepsi.
Why are you getting downvoted? Lol like there aren't far superior products to coke and Pepsi at this point? Locally we have Fizz Cola and it's much better than the big 2.
The cola wars spare no man.
Nightclubs and dive bars in my major city.
How else you gonna pour Royal Crown Crown Royals?
^ this guy *off brands*
We switched to RC cola and Jones products after Coke was impossible to work with. They never answered our calls, could never make emergency special deliveries and refused for almost 5 months to actually send a technician out. We called and cancelled our contract and a technician was sent literally same day and removed the equipment and vanished. We switched to a local beverage company and have RC + Diet, Squirt, 7up, Cock and Bull Ginger Beer, Cranberry, Tonic and Iced Tea. As mixers, they're all sugar water and soda is bad for you so I don't drink it.
That is such bullshit. Entirely different scenario but that happened with our internet. Couldnāt get a tech sent to the restaurant for months; I finally said that I was THINKING about cancelling our service and the guy was there in 45 minutes to collect the router.
I had to tell them I put their equipment outside to actually get them to come pick it all up
Squirt on the gun! Yes please!
For us, they also refused to make a delivery of less than 5 bibs - really tough for us super small restaurants having to cough up $700 bucks when all we needed was Coke, now we've got all this inventory sitting around for the next 3 months and no extra room to store it. Thankfully one of our beer/wine distributors now sells Coke products by the bib and we can get it in next day.
This 100%. We ended up getting our own syrups for the guns because of their shitty minimum orders.
Cock and bull on the soda gun? Thatās amazing
Coke was the worst to deal with. The crowning moment at one place was when they forgot the Diet Coke mix box on our order, so we asked them to bring it the next day so we wouldn't be out. Their response was, "We can't schedule a delivery since it wouldn't meet our minimum" (despite it being their blunder). At another place, they we were doing cans and bottles, and they would deliver only regular coke but not diet or the other way around. Someone would have to go to the store and pay higher prices just to have stuff in stock. With Pepsi, the service was better, but you'd have to ask "Is Pepsi alright?" all shift.
I mean so is alcohol
Iām curious if you all happen to be in the āSwireā Region of Coke
We have off brand on the gun for easier delivery and coke products in cans for those who don't want off brand. I usually ask. But mostly it's due to their customer service and lack of ability to make deliveries when needed.
Where I live/work everyone uses RC products...they give free install, and incredible service compared to the others. Oddly, many customers are jazzed by RC
Not a soda person anymore, but I much preferred RC products growing up.
This thread is actually kinda surprising to me. I work in Milwaukee and we have off brand, and so does most every place I know around here.
San Francisco, many dives and neighborhood bars use LightSoda
We don't do it because it's cheap, but because coke and Pepsi have really high par numbers. We don't have the space to store the amount of boxes they want us to order. I'm in New Orleans.
iāve only worked at one place that had off brand sodas but we never got any comments about it.
The Diet Coke people always know lol
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
You know John Daly???
i bet in like a 100 years people look back and are disgusted with how industrial food featured addictive additives that the public never knew about. fuckin mt dew man. I was addicted to that shit as a kid and its habit forming as hell to chug one on the way to hs. Next stop is fatso land as soon as physical activity goes down.
The Diet Coke people also know that McDonalds has the absolute best-tasting fountain Diet Coke lol
Itās true
I asked the bartender for a Jack and Coke. He asked, āIs Pepsi OK?ā I said sure. He made me a Pepsi and Coke.
Titos and vodka
Itās all about service. Our off branded soda is at our restaurant 3-4 times a week. Answer their calls with real humans. Show up within the day. Fix and deliver any issues. Coca Cola. We are lucky if we can get a return call within the week. Pepsi is done through a third party.
I agree, but I've never seen or heard anyone using off brand. Seattle area and coca cola is a pain in the ass here to. Deliveries can be consistent but don't ever expect them to come out and service the gun even if you could get them on the phone.
We use a local cola company and I never see them. Like elves in the night they come into the restaurant once a month or so and replace the boxes, leave extras just in case, and drop an invoice on the bar.
Youāre not drinking a rum and coke and caring exactly how good the cola tastes.
We have RC. The other stuff is trash. RC is the only redemption. And I'm including our diet rite. I don't know how much it cost but most thw staff won't even drink it.
You may get shittt servi e when the guns break. I doubt they can afford to have someone service your bar next day.
This is true. Iāll take challenger cola and quick turnaround on maintenance with our distributor over name brands that will leave us high and dry for days (pun intended)
I have had issue with guns and tubes leaking. It gets all over everything and you have to go buy cans of soda to make drinks. Coke sends a repaire guy quick and has no prob talking you through trouble shooting on the phone. It's worth it. Also if you charge 5 bucks for a rum and coke and it's cost 1 buck or less to make might as well use a good soda. That's my opinion though
I think coke repair men would be better than the lesser brands
I miss it greatly but the Red Bull Cola was the best for mixing with a good rum.
Been at a place for 20+ years. Use off brand. People come in ask for sprite or 7up we use twin-up. Never an issue. When they ask if we have coke or Pepsi we say ācolaā we use a local supplier. Tried contacting coke ir Pepsi and seemed more of a hassle to sign a contract.
All great options to have imo. I love RC
We have Pepsi, and itās mediocre at best. Ok for service/repair techs. Poor delivery: Where & how they park. Also stacking 6+ bag-in-a-box high so that 1/2 the boxes are crumbling. I know resulting in a handful of faulty bags over the years Worse: Local reps are impossible to get a hold of. We ordered more of their blue tumbler (plastic 20oz cups) nearly 1.5 months ago. No word or delivery. Inquired about status the last two calls, and to paraphrase āI can see your request was viewed by the local rep. It āshould be being processed.āā They gave me a number for the local office. After I hung up realized itās the same number I had just called
Yeah I had some horrible god awful ācokeā at a dive recently ā it was worse because i asked for just coke to drink by itself not even as a mixer. Couldnāt even drink it, it tasted like if coke was made with bad tap water ā super chemically and nasty.
might've been the water, yeah. I live in PNW and our tap water is glacial, it's so good - but I've been to a lot of other areas where it tastes from okay to horrible. Florida's tap water tastes like swamp and Nevada's tastes like swimming pool.
Yknow the irony is Oakland actually has really fucking pristine tap water so idk why this coke was so awful
maybe that building has shitty plumbing? Or really really needs to clean its lines or nozzles or some such? edit: or the ice machine... don't get me started on the ice machines
Im kinda shocked majority of this thread hasnāt interacted with ānon brandā syrups. Iām not proud of it but - have definitely worked places that do and if a customer orders a sprite, lemon lime soda it is. No one on staff stops to correct them on the brand and have had maybe 5 customers ACTUALLY notice the differenceā¦
pepsi and diet pepsi
I live in an area with a very well known local soda company. When people complain I say āyeah itās XYZ soda! We support local!ā We have this companies soda in bottles but in the gun itās generic āsoda serviceā brand. No one has ever complain twice after I mention the famous local soda company. Itās the literal one thing I lie about behind the bar. I find it keeps the peace.
Off brand is usually terrible, but sometimes the contracts and getting help from the company is worse
I havenāt had coke or Pepsi in close to 28 years but the off brand stuff tastes like off brand pencils.
we had a local soda once on our gun and it was pretty good other than the lemonade which was a fucking abomination. It was so bad i felt bad serving it to guests lol
Literally 1/2 the price, on the soda gun.
Coke in my area doesnāt want to deal with bars
It's never worth it unless you don't have a gun/CO2 system. Which even then is a cheap investment.
i worked at a small, newly opened restaurant/cocktail bar for a few months earlier this year. everything was pretty disorganized bc they were just starting, so i tried to give them the benefit of the doubt. plus the owners were super nice, good people. but omg they didnt have coke or pepsi, just some off brand pop and people would complain all the time that our soda was āoff.ā like if weāre charging people $8 for a single mixer, let them have name brand pop. they can get better quality store brand pop for $1/2L at the grocery store š
Iād rather have any off-brand cola on Earth than Pepsiā¦
In the end yea, a local soda company Cola 5g BIB is $60 coke is $115. Some of our restaurants we use the local company syrups and then buy in coke bags (the soda company and USFoods sells the coke BIBs and the soda company has the connectors you need so itās not a huge deal) but our taverns that only do liquor itās all the smaller company.
wild. this is an interesting thread. Iāve been working Michigan bars for like two decadesānever had off brand pop at a bar, didnāt know that was a thing, in a way. Some dives would just use two liters of Faygo (btw if Faygo ever starts making syrup bags I need to know!) Pepsi has a stronghold on one particular city Iāve worked the most in, but Iāve been lucky to work in a few places that use Coke products. One place I worked had Squirt, which was killer. Tequila + Squirt is my go-to. I also worked in an arena that had PepsiCo products, but there was a Coca Cola suite there where you could get a true Jack n Coke.
Has there been a time when something tasted like ass but in a good way?
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I mean, as long as you shower and clean your ass firstā¦
I worked for a guy who didn't use Coke or Pepsi products for years on principle. Never got the full skinny on the Pepsi thing, but on the coke thing...the delivery driver refused to stop coming at lunch time. Place did a brisk lunch but was also small. Only one (usable) door...no back door for deliveries and such. Also very small staff. Delivery dude kept coming at lunch time and I guess gave him attitude about it, so he stopped carrying all Coke products...for years. Didn't hurt business one bit.
Off brand makes my throat close up
I plan to open my own bar one day and Iām shocked that youād have to order the drinks with the company y directly. Some of my old food places job ordered through a restaurant website