Many, if not most, of the restaurants that aren’t nationwide chains in Austin TX sell Maine Root sodas, either bottle or draft. Including several quite large, if local chains. Not exactly “generic soda” - more of an upscale if anything, but it’s even in chains that would otherwise be defined as ‘fast food’.
We’ve got a pizzeria here in Olympia that serves a brand of soda called Puck’s.
It was also the only brand of soda available at the Seahawks’ stadium for a few years until Coke bought back the rights.
Is Double Cola still around?
Yep. I always liked it as well as I could any non-Coke cola. Definitely better than Pepsi!
That’s just it though; Maine Root is upscale, not “generic”. And Jarritos isn’t a bargain brand in Mexico either. Neither are specific local/regional soda brands like RC.
I can’t think of having ever visited a restaurant that serves some janky downmarket “generic” soda line of any kind. I kind of get the impression that the OP is asking about a restaurant serving the equivalent of Wal-Mart brand sodas like Dr. Thunder instead of Dr. Pepper, Mountain Lightning instead of Mountain Dew, and so on…
I think the OP is asking about generic fountain soda. Are there even any generic or off-brand sodas available that way?
Make your own:
Anybody can do it (or make and sell large volumes of concentrate). Question is if it works out cheaper than Coca-Cola for the diner or restaurant.
Is RC considered off brand enough or not? That is available on the gun/soda dispenser.
It’s not cola (I’m not sure exactly what it is*), but Ale-8-1 (“A Late One”) is served at a number of restaurants in Kentucky, where it is bottled and sold in supermarkets.
*seems to be a hybrid of lemon-lime with distinct ginger overtones. It and its permutations are pretty good.
I stopped in a little health-centered restaurant for breakfast once. When I asked for a Coke the waitress looked at me in horror. “Sir, this is (name of restaurant). We don’t don’t serve Coke.” But they did serve me some generic brand. I didn’t bother to ask them why no Coke brand.
I felt kind of like this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eLNOTJFJOfg
I’m straying away from beverages here, but I visited Cuba back in 2015, on one of those “educational” tours for Americans. One of the restaurants we ate at had all Kirkland (Costco store brand) condiments on the tables. When we asked the owner about it, he explained that his cousin in Miami has a Costco membership and brings him supplies every month.
Given the “health” focus of the place, my guess is that they probably served some “natural” cola, no preservatives, sweetened with cane sugar instead of high fructose corn syrup, that sort of thing.
Yep. One place where I used to eat would only serve Hansen’s sodas for that reason.
While it’s not quite a restaurant, the last couple to times I went to the annual air show here in Sacramento, all the refreshment vendors were selling RC Cola and Diet Rite. Apparently RC’s parent company managed to get the exclusive beverage contract for the air show. I kind of wonder if they got the contract for just that local show, or the entire national air show circuit.
I came in to mention this. They had Hojo Cola on the Howard Johnson’s menus, back when they were the only game in town at the interstate rest stops. (I don’t think I ever saw a can of it, as your picture shows).
Certainly back when I was a kid the local bottlers made their own colas. We had one right in town that made colas* .
There were a lot of local eateries back then that weren’t part of big chains, and it wouldn’t surprise me if many of them sold such small-brand colas instead of Coke, Pepsi, or RC. But I can’t say for certain.
(the basic cola recipe isn’t all that much of a secret. as William Poundstone pointed out in Big Secrets, it’s listed in industry handbooks of flavor recipes. It’s basically a fantasia blend of citrus oil, cinnamon or cassia, and vanilla. The "secret’ part of Coke and Pepsi formulas is in the proportionss and the others ingredients, and the source of the citrus oils.)