The Refresher

Every time my wife wants Loteria, I come over to Refresher for a soda. Lots of choices, and usually no one else in line. They always offer parking validation, too, which is nice.
My one little picky issue is that I always tip $ 1 on every soda I buy, which seems generous to me, and not once has an employee at Refresher said «Thank you.»
It ticks me off at Starbucks, but it REALLY ticks me off at Refresher, where the counter service just picks up a bottle and hands it to me.

More choices of obscure drinks and fun counter staff. Thanks for the bey-​blades suggestion. I love me some Sarsaparilla!

A good place to quench your thirst while at the Farmers Market.
They have sodas from all over the world. I like the original Coke in the bottle. Plus, they have my latest fav MeXican CoKe!
Service is quick & helpful especially if you can’t decide.

I am totally with Javier J. on this one. The idea of The Refresher is great– specialty bottled sodas of every flavor and brand, with or without real cane sugar. I’m a fan of the simple bottles of Mexican coke. I’m the type of gal who flocks to the grocery store during Passover to snatch up bottles of natural classic coke because the syrupy corn-​syrup kind is not only gross, but super bad for you. So why only three stars? As mentioned in other reviews, they display drinks that they don’t actually carry. The people work here also don’t have very much product knowledge, and some of the prices are a little steep for a soda you can get at other Farmers Market vendors for a buck less. But I am still a fan for those times when an iced cold pop just calls my name.

This place is my Frenemy. Well, more like my reluctant dealer when I need a fix for that specialty soda.
I don’t know how to describe it. I hate it and yet at the same time I seem to come back to it every god damn time I’m at the Farmer’s Market for a quick fix on the often harder to find sodas.
What can I say, I don’t like your typical Pepsi, Coke or anything else with HFCS. And no, I’m not like those morons in the Corn industry ads that doesn’t like it simply because «you know.», I actually have studies to show that the junk is worse than pure cane sugar.
Anyhow, back to this place. Since I do like me some Brazilian BBQ and it’s a whole 4 steps away from where you pay, it seems that I constantly come here to buy drinks for the newly acquired plate of rice, beans and sliced meat.
I’m a Sioux City Sarsaparilla type of guy. I think it’s one of the finest ones out there. So it’s my go-​to drink when I do indulge myself in the bad-​for-​you sodas. It seemed like I was not ever having any luck getting it here because THEY WOULD NEVER HAVE IT IN STOCK EVEN THOUGH THEY HAD IT UP ON THE SHELF! Taunting! Taunting me like it would! Damn you!
Well, at least the last time I grabbed some grub here they had it in stock. But how could you run out of it so often and not learn to have plenty in stock?
So why else do I hate this place? It may not seem like much, but the prices on these specialty sodas is way too damn expensive. Hell, 40 feet away at Cost Plus, they have most of them on the shelf and even their prices, while much lower, are still slightly above what I’m used to paying for them.
This is not to say that they don’t have a good selection. In fact, they do. They have some ginger beers you probably never even heard of. Let alone tasted REAL ginger beer for yourself.
And the service is really lackluster apathetic. Out of the last 10 – 15 times I’ve come to pick up a quick fix, only once was the person actually remotely helpful in their comments. Most of the time no one is even paying attention to anyone who comes up to buy a soda and you have to wait a couple of minutes.
I think what makes me flat about this place is that Gelco’s does it so much better and for a fraction of the price. So, it’s not like the whole rare/​smaller REAL soda business is that hard to find. Not only that, but they also give way better recommendations and actually seem like they care on what you’re drinking.
Especially for those who actually treat soda as a… TREAT, and not an everyday thing, it’s nice to make sure you’re drinking something you like when you do decide to go in for empty calories.

So Claire and I went to the Farmer’s Market today. It was some sort of date I guess. I had a headache — let’s just start with that. I think it was from driving too much. I’m not sure. It was probably a combination of driving too much and not having had any caffeine by 2pm. This is not good for me. I get headaches. Lunch date. It was a lunch date, did I mention that? Well anyway, that’s what it was. This was my goal: get some caffeine in me before I turn into an angry monster and ruin the date. First stop: The Refresher. I usually don’t like to get my drink before the meal. Often, in fact, at restaurants I will pretend to ‘not know’ what I want to drink when the meal order is placed to ensure that the waitress doesnt bring my drink too soon before the meal arrives. I know I know. You don’t have to tell me. Sometimes if I trust the waitstaff’s skill I will actually order a ‘diet coke, but with the meal, please’ or more accurately a ‘diet coke with no ice, with the meal please’. Rarely, though. Rarely because rarely do they not bring it too early. Instead I usually just say that I haven’t decided what I want yet. and when I feel the food is almost ready, I flag down the waitress and order my drink. That technique usualy works out rather well. However, on a date, especially a first or second, I try to not to flaunt this type of maniacal behavior. I just deal. I suffer through warm diet coke (which is what happens when the drink comes too far before the meal. It is warm by the time the food arrives. especially if, like me, you don’t like ice) or I just take whatever they give me whenever they give it to me. Because that’s the type of guy I am. The word ‘accomodating’ has come up more than once. Twice in fact. In print, even. Well, on the internet anyway. which is able to be printed out. Anyway, here’s the point: I don’t like to get my drink until the food is ready. But today, I had a headache. I think it was from driving. So first stop: The Refresher. I’ve been there before. In fact, I go to The Refresher pretty much every time I’m at the Farmer’s Market. I think I first went back in 1999 when I was living off of Fairfax. Like an idiot, I would order a diet coke. (with no ice) I’d get my food from Phil’s or one of the other vendors, and my drink from The Refresher. Every time. I’m not sure how or when I decided to veer off of my usual path and try something new, but at some point it must have happened. You see, The Refresher specializes in imported and hand-​made beverages, mostly of the cola and root-​beer variety. I tried a few root beers. A sasparilla. All good. And then. one glorious day. the million year old woman who works the place (and has worked it since my first visit) exposed me to what is possibly the greatest advance in modern dining: Caffeinated Root Beer. I mean, root beer is awesome, right? And caffeine. I mean… air or caffeine. which would you choose? right? Normaly I drink root beer with a meal if it’s late and I don’t want to be up all night. I prefer root beer to diet coke. but shit. Sometimes, no, most of the time, you just need that kick. So, diet coke it is. Then. THEN. Then she shows me. She shows me the way to beverage heaven. I can have root beer in the middle of the day and not fall asleep! You know what? I should really get her name. It’s not like I can name my first-​born ‘old lady at the refresher chait’, right? So anyway, armed with the knowledge bestowed unto me by said lady, first stop: The Refresher. Well, not first stop. Man. That fact ruins this whole story doesn’t it? Shit. But hey, I’m not going to lie. Not for you. Not for this site. Not for the sake of a story. Here’s the truth: We walked right past The Refresher on the way in. Maybe I was in a daze. Maybe I was trying to play it cool in front of Claire. Maybe I had my mind fixated on the Nut House peanut butter. Either way, that’s where we went first. We got some samples and took the fucking long way around the market until we ended up deciding to eat at Phil’s. We placed our orders and paid before we ever made our way to The Refresher. So. hmm. I guess really I should change ‘first stop: The Refresher’ to something like ‘fourth stop: The Refresher’. Either way, we made it. Eventually. We walk up and without hesitation I order TWO RAT BASTARDS. (Rat Bastard being the caffeinated root beer that I love so). Well, no. I guess I didn’t really oder two Rat Bastard’s. I ordered one, and then Claire said ‘two’ then I said ‘two Rat Bastard’s’ but that detail isn’ t very important I suppose. The reason I write this review and the reason behind the 5 star review is two-​fold. Fold one: the selection. I mean, shit. They have like, 50 different sodas. All sorts of weird shit. There is even a little menu there with a short description of each choice. Fold two: the lady. Old lady. the old lady at The Refresher, whatever her name is. She goes to get our drinks from the fridge and ***what the FUCK, it cut me off! 5,000 my ass!