Nehi!

I ran across this 1958 receipt for Nehi beverages from my grandfather’s short-lived drive-in restaurant at Aqueduct, and it made me wonder where Nehi had gone. Nehi was once a well-known soda brand, which in 1955 became Royal Crown.Growing up, Royal Crown was always something of the consolation prize when what you really wanted was a Coke. Locally, it was bottled at 1240-1242 Broadway in Albany; it looks like the building still stands. I’m not sure just when local bottling of Royal Crown ceased; a tax case shows they continued at least until 1976.

To judge by this, their offerings in 1958 were: Royal Crown Cola; Fruit Orange; Fruit Punch; Root Beer; Ginger Ale; Blk. Raspberry; Upper 10; Cream; Black Cherry; Grape; Sparkling Water. And apparently there was some other option that my grandfather took delivery of a case of. “V.B.”?

Apparently there is still Nehi soda in some areas ; the brands belong to Dr. Pepper/Snapple.