BROOKDALE SODA -- Pride of the Garden State: Brookdale Soda

Showing posts with label Brookdale Soda. Show all posts

5/13/19

When did Brookdale Beverage close?

The Pieretti family sold it in 1987.

And, according to knowledgeable sources, the new owners obviously didn't know what they were doing or care, and it was gone in 1988.

9/8/16

Memories of Brookdale soda, 1976

I never drank milk except in coffee when I was a kid. That was back in the days when milkmen made house calls.

In our neighborhood on Gless Avenue in Belleville, New Jersey, we had strong young fellows who delivered our cases of 12-pack Brookdale soda bottles.

The men, strong and sure, gripped the cases, one in each hand and lugged our soda up the stairs to our second floor apartment. ...

Continue reading

Copyright © 1976-2019 by Anthony Buccino. All rights reserved.

5/1/15

Ever lock yourself out of your car when picking up Brookdale Soda?

Anthony,

My family and I drank Brookdale soda for years. We lived in Bloomfield and used to drive over to the bottling plant near the Clifton border, grab a wooden case, and fill it up with large bottles. I vividly recall the day I locked the car keys in the trunk by accident when we were getting ready to leave. My father was angry, to say the least. He called my mother, who drove over and opened the trunk with her key. We always had Brookdale soda at family parties. I wish someone would bring that great soda back!

Bob Cianci

9/2/12

Our Facebook group has great photos

Here are pics from Bobby Cole's collection:

Check out the Brookdale Soda page on Facebook. You must be logged in to Facebook to view/join the group.

6/24/10

Baristanet and Brookale Soda

Although she grew up in Northern Virginia, novelist and Baristanet founder Debra Galant is hearing a lot of good things these days about growing up with Brookdale soda in those days.

Read more.

Copyright © 2010 by Anthony Buccino, all rights reserved. Photos and content may not be used for commercial purposes without written permission.
Look for the Brookdale Soda group on Facebook.com

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2/19/09

Scott checks in with memories of Brookdale soda

"...Hi.
I somehow stumbled across your site - WOW! Blast from the past!
I remember going to exchange the bottles @ Heller & Heller, someplace in Bloomfield, and someplace in Belleville near Newark I think.

When I was really young, I remember they even had a truck that did deliveries. I remember the bottles of soda stacked on the truck. NEAT to see the pictures.

If you're interested, Franklin Farms has an old Brookdale Soda Clock inside the store. Round, yellow and blue I think, and it still works! If you see him open, stop in and check out the time!

I think it's been there for 30 years and the guy who used to run the place was a distributor or a delivery guy - not sure, but there's a story there.

Its funny what you remember out of the blue sometimes. So many of my birthday parties as a kid had Brookdale sodas involved - for some reason I remember the lime - so bright green - and the fruit punch the most. They even had the plastic bottle tops to put on the bottle after it was opened. Kind of a translucent plastic I think. (I wonder if my parents have any at home?) If I come across any other Brookdale stuff, I'll keep you posted!

Thanks for running that blog! I put a link to it from the home page for now. I thought it would be neat for visitors to see other Belleville-related things too. Especially things that are no more.

Scott ... "

Edited from two separate emails from the same writer.

Copyright © 2009 by Anthony Buccino, all rights reserved. Photos and content may not be used for commercial purposes without written permission.

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2/16/09

Grace Remembers The Flavorings

Grace reports in:

"...The extracts for that soda, the Black Cherry Pit, the Orange, the Cream and the Root Beer were manufactured by my grandfather, and father, I am the last descendant from that line.

I lived on Lake Street and went to Sacred Heart School.

Whenever I came home from school, the whole house smelled of cherry pit and still when I smell cherry I go back to my childhood.

My favorite candle to burn today is Black Cherry.

Sometimes when I’d come home from school in my little uniform with the knee socks and beanie, my grandfather would ask me to taste (imagine a six year old doing Human Factors) a new flavor he was experimenting with, some I liked others I did not, so your next "new" soda was in the hands (or flavor buds) of a 6 - 10 year old.

We also supplied many of the Italian Ice Stores you probably went to. It was a charmed life, no locked doors, playing in Branch Brook Park until dusk and sitting on the stoop with my friends.

Thanks for remembering...."

1/11/09

Bobby Cole on Brookdale Soda

Brookdale Soda...The Best I've ever tasted

Growing up in Newark New Jersey in the 60's and 70's, I was exposed to the best food and drink you could ever imagine. I knew it too, and I can look back now and realize now how magical of an era it was in America's history. I could spend weeks and weeks talking about the different foods and beverages the inner cities of the Northeast had at their fingertips but for this post, I will discuss the greatest soda I have ever tasted.
Continue reading

Thanks to Retrobobby for

Going Going Gone
A time it was...It was a time

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Copyright © 2009 by Anthony Buccino, all rights reserved. Photos and content may not be used for commercial purposes without written permission.

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7/21/08

Can You Name the Brookdale Soda Flavors?

Two questions:

1 - What's your favorite Brookdale soda flavor?

2 - Without peeking, how many Brookdale soda flavors can you name?

Bonus question - tell us a flavor we missed!

Birch Beer
Black Raspberry
Celery
Cheers
Cherry & Cherry Pit
Club Soda
Coca-Cream
Cola
Cream
Fruit Punch
Ginger Ale
Half And Half
Kola
Lemon
Lemon-Lime
Lime
Orange
Quinine
Root Beer
Tom Collins Mixer
Tonic Water

That's 21 ... of the 32 flavors!

Copyright © 2008 by Anthony Buccino, all rights reserved. Photos and content may not be used for commercial purposes without written permission.

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5/6/08

FLAVORS - Tonic Water

Featuring something called Tonic Water from Brookdale Beverage Co.

Is it tonic or is it water? What's up with that?

Copyright © 2008 by Anthony Buccino, all rights reserved. Photos and content may not be used for commercial purposes without written permission.

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4/22/08

FLAVORS - Tom Collins

Featuring Tom Collins mixers from Brookdale Beverage Co.

4/18/08

FLAVORS Lemon

Featuring lemon flavored Brookdale soda:

Copyright © 2008 by Anthony Buccino, all rights reserved

4/16/08

Brookdale Mixers Stash Discovered

What's a Tom Collins, anyway?

Our friend Bob told us about these cases of Brookdale soda bottles he had in his garage. And although he wouldn't part with them, he allowed us to visit with our camera.

Copyright © 2008 by Anthony Buccino, all rights reserved. Photos and content may not be used for commercial purposes without written permission. Click on photos for close-up view.

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UPDATE: August 2015 ... The owner of this collection passed along the two crates of bottles to Anthony Buccino.

4/4/08

Letters, We Get Letters

Sent: Fri, 28 Mar 2008 12:36 pm
Subject: Brookdale Beverage

Photo Copyright © 2008 by Anthony Buccino, all rights reserved

Hi,

I just read your story online about Brookdale Beverage and it brought back some memories for me. I worked behind Mr Peretti's home at Brookdale Beverage for a couple of years during high school ('82-84). It was my first job. I also attended school with his grandchildren (which is how I found out about the job). He was an intelligent, hardworking, firm but fair man. Although I appreciated the gesture, I really hated the lunch sandwiches that he made for us (still not sure what type of lunchmeat it was).

I look back and reflect on how hard the work was! Right about the time that I worked there, in hindsight, they had an opportunity to differentiate themselves by developing healthy drinks (like Snapple did). Unfortunately, Joe grew old and there was no-one there to tweak the business model. I wish I was a few years older at the time and was able to somehow help keep his dream alive.

Respectfully,
Frank

Copyright © 2008 by Anthony Buccino, all rights reserved. Photos and content may not be used for commercial purposes without written permission. Click on photo for enlarged view.

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3/29/08

Oh, THOSE old bottles?

Should we clean them up and try to take a better photo, or leave them as-is?

We fear if the labels on these old Brookdale soda bottles get wet, they'll fade or disintegrate.

Any suggestions from the peanut gallery?

More On Celery Soda, Really

Letters, we get letters.

Hi Anthony,

I enjoyed reading the articles on Brookdale Soda. I
have collected Celery Soda bottles, advertising, and
ephemera for thirty years and have over three hundred
items in my collection representing over a hundred
companies and thirty-five states plus Canada and Cuba.
I have bottles dating from the 1880s to the 1980s and
every decade in between.

Other New Jersey Celery Sodas included:

Williams Celery Clifton, NJ
Brown's Celery and Phosphate Camden, NY
O-Celery Camden, NJ
Imnken Celery Tonic, Hoboken, NJ
Hoffman Celery Tonic Newark, NJ
Singers Celery Patterson, NJ
Zimmerman's Celery Tonic Patterson, NJ
Celery=Cola Newark, NJ

Would you send me contact information for the Nutley
Museum? I would love to get a picture of a Brookdale
Celery if they have on in that case on display.

Regards,
Dennis Smith

3/21/08

drink "UP" Cheers

Here is a copy of a Brookdale soda advertisement for its Cheers soda - a lemon lime drink similar to Sprite and 7-Up. It was available in diet, too.

2/14/08

Brookdale Beverages - Light and Clock

WHAT? Milk!

What time is it? It's Brookdale Soda time!

Small pieces of our past are vanishing ... unlike this clock that a fellow in Pennsylvania had and wanted to pass along. So, thanks, now that the package has arrived safely. We'll keep the ice cold for you.

Copyright © 2008 by Anthony Buccino, all rights reserved. Photos and content may not be used for commercial purposes without written permission.

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2/6/08

Celery Soda, Part Two

Celery Brookdale Soda

Used by permission of Victoria Chalk

Click on image for easier reading view.

2/5/08

Father's Brookdale Route in Belleville and Newark

Hi,
My father also worked for BROOKDALE BEVERAGE.

I will never forget aunt Marie and uncle Joe and of course Barbara and Joseph.

Most of all i will never forget the wonderful picnics they gave all the employees, i think every year.

My father, Gene Merich, now passed away, had his own soda route which was in newark and belleville. I remember his brookdale truck and the wooden soda cases. I think my favorite flavor was the cream.

I could go on and on, just so many great memories with brookdale soda.

DIANA