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[dropcap]It’s[/dropcap] the stuff of children’s dreams: a soda ranch. More than 600 different brands and flavors of soda, most jewel-colored, packed in cases, lining walls, enticing, silently calling, “Drink me.”
It is indeed a child’s dream come true at POPS, a gas station, restaurant and, yes, soda ranch located along Route 66 in tiny Arcadia, Okla., just east of Edmond. The large, neon glow of the 66-foot-tall soda bottle alerts passersby of what waits through the doors of the retro-yet-modern building that houses POPS.
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Breakfast, lunch and dinner is served in the restaurant. Classic diner favorites like eggs and bacon, burgers, chicken fried steak and chicken bites comprise the bulk of the menu. Hand-dipped shakes provide a flourish at the end of any meal.
But it’s the soda selection that’s the real experience. Flavors like watermelon, pomegranate, kiwi, green apple, blueberry, orange, butterscotch, cherry, raspberry-rhubarb, pineapple, mango, peach, grape and every type of cola and root beer one can imagine call to thirsty passersby.
There are also soda flavors for the adventurous: Dr. Brown’s Cel-Ray Soda is flavored like the vegetable it’s named for; Avery’s Dog Drool may sound like a byproduct of the family dog, but is flavored with citrus fruit; Lester’s Fixins makes several food-flavored sodas, including the Buffalo Wing and Ranch Dressing sodas, both of which POPS carries; and Cookie Dough Bites Chocolate Chip soda makes for a tasty, if somewhat strange, dessert. 660 Highway 66, Arcadia. www.route66.com