Was watching an old episode of Kitchen Nightmares and at one point they pan over the soda refill station in the back and the only two soda options they have (according to the front label) is “Jazz Cool Cola” and “Diet Jazz Cool Cola”. Is that actually a thing or did they just go through a weird amount of effort to disguise the actual licensed soda on display.
Which brings me to a wider question, are there any restaurants or fast food places in the United States that serve generic cola, outside of Coke or Pepsi?
I’ve been in restaurants that didn’t have soda fountains but instead served canned or bottled soda, so I suppose it’s possible for one to serve a store or generic brand of cola.
And Googling, Jazz was a Pepsi brand from 2006-9, so perhaps that’s what you saw?
You’ll find RC and Diet Rite in some Chicago area establishments. I’ve seen local company Filbert’s as well. (Filberts will be in bottles, and often at hipsterish places, but it’s an old company. RC is normal at a lot of pizza places, banquet halls, and bars.)
As others have said, cola outside of Coke or Pepsi, definitely. Cheerwine* is a North Carolina OriginalTM, and it’s served in a lot of restaurants around me. I’ve also seen RC and Diet Rite as house colas.
I don’t think I’ve ever seen a truly generic cola as the house cola, though. I’ve been in restaurants that listed “cola” without a brand on the menu, but I think they used actual name brand colas. I know I’ve asked for a “Coke” at a restaurant that just listed “Cola” and been asked, “We serve Pepsi; is that ok?”
I should also add that you’ll see Filbert’s at the budget friendly Southwest Side banquet halls as well, where it’s definitely not there for any local hipster cred but rather because, well, it’s cheap. And it’s pretty decent, too. I know some people specifically seek out their root beer. It was quite disconcerting the first time I saw it show up at a “n upscale trendy Wicker Park establishment. Kind of like my Buffalonian wife’s reaction when she saw a severely up-priced Genessee Cream Ale at a chic wood-fired pizza joint in Indiana.
I remember going to at least one family-run restaurant (in Canada) that sold cans of President’s Choice soda (a store brand for the Loblaw’s chain of grocery stores).
The dispenser nozzle on the viewer’s left is pretty clearly a Diet Coke dispenser with a generic “Diet Cola” strip stuck over the “Coke” part - you can still see the “Diet” in the standard Coke font on the underlying signage. So, yeah, in this specific instance, it sure looks like the show was simply disguising the name brand signage on display.
It’s my understanding that in a lot of European markets (maybe an EU regulation?), there are strict broadcast standards on displaying “ads”, so you’ll frequently see brand names blurred out, or covered as in this case. Even U.S. shows that are also intended for broadcast in Europe and other markets with similar regulations will deliberately cover up such signage.
If you’re old enough to remember when Howard Johnson’s restaurants was a thing, you’re probably old enough to remember their very own HoJo Cola. Even people who swore they couldn’t tell the difference between Coke and Pepsi could definitely tell that HoJo Cola was neither Coke or Pepsi. Nor was it very good and it disappeared from the menu in due course.
I see this on Chopped all the time. One of the basket ingredients will be something like “puffed rice cereal” or “chewy sour candy” even though it’s obvious that it’s Rice Krispies or Skittles.
Phil’s Fish Market in Moss Landing, CA serves some locally made soda, including a cola and a Dr. Pepper knock off, or at least they did in 2020 when I was there. I forget what it was called now.
As do the McMenamins restaurants in the Pacific Northwest.
There was a brief period when Alaska Airlines served Seattle made Jones Soda on all their flights. I don’t know of any restaurants that serve it, but it wouldn’t surprise me if there were some in Seattle that did.
I’ve seen minor brands and store brands being sold in hole-in-the-wall type places that are just starting out. Often with immigrants at the helm, selling mainly to their fellow immigrants and the few brave citizens looking for new flavors. They are usually sniffed out by the salesfolk and rack jobbers of the big names and switch what they carry after a few months.
Vess soda has been a bizarre St. Louis tradition for more than a century. Although it’s mostly available in 2-liter bottles from local supermarkets, there’s at least one local restaurant that serves it.
