My dad drinks Pepsi, NOT Coke. Specifically he's always on the prowl for Pepsi in a bottle. He prefers the taste of it in a glass bottle over plastic, fountain, and aluminum. Over the years it has become increasingly hard to find, to the point that we now must look to importers to get it at all. What follows here is the story of my dad and his eternal quest for Pepsi in a bottle.
When I was in college at St. Bonaventure University one of the last few glass bottlers in the country was only a few minutes away. When that plant stopped bottling in glass we bought up the last 28 cases of the local grocer's stock. Yes, 28 CASES. That lasted a while. When that stock ran out my dad called around to two bottlers he found online that he believed to be the last remaining glass bottlers. But it was too late. Pepsico had stopped glass bottling in the USA.
Then one day a few years back as I was walking down Ninth Avenue in NYC I saw it. Pepsi in a glass bottle. I pulled it out to be sure. It was the real deal. I went inside to talk with the store manager. It was bottled in Mexico, imported to the USA, trucked across the country to a distributor here in the city. He only had less than 1 case, but could order a few cases for me. I negotiated a rock-bottom price of $20 per case and bought 10 cases. It sat in my apartment until Christmastime when I rented an SUV, loaded it into the back, and drove home to Pittsburgh. My sisters and I gave it to dad as a Christmas present.
Those 10 cases lasted more than a year, maybe two years. On a few trips where he drove to NYC we all but forgot to look for Pepsi in a bottle. Maybe a last minute check with bodegas, but with last minute notice we were never able to get more than what was on the shelf. The distributor only delivers once a week, if that, and we would have to place the order far in advance, just like I did with the 10 cases a few years back.
This trip was no different. My mom and I were walking around downtown this afternoon and remembered we needed to find Pepsi in a bottle. The quest always starts at a bodega: walk in, see if they are Hispanic, if not then leave, if yes then ask, "do you have Pepsi in a glass bottle? Do you know anyone around here that does?" It takes a few places but eventually you get someone who thinks you can get it on the next block. We started on Bowery (3rd Ave) and got a tip to trip a few blocks up on 2nd Ave. No dice there but they thought a little place on 1st Ave and further down had it. Nothing. And the trail went cold, no further leads. We went from bodega to bodega and then passed by a little Mexican hole-in-the-wall restaurant. Looking in from the window through the glass door of the cooler I saw it: Pepsi in a glass bottle. Quick conversation with the manager and unfortunately what's in the cooler is all they have. But they have a lead...
Over to Avenue A, in to another tiny little restaurant, quick negotiation, and we have ourselves a case of Pepsi. It's the best we can hope for on short notice and probably the biggest cache of it down in the East Village. Until next time dad, enjoy your Pepsi in a glass bottle!
