It was a happy accident that brought us to Galco's Soda Pop Stop in Highland Park the other day. We were cruising along the side streets, on our way from who knows where to who knows where, when the funky old supermarket exterior caught our eye. "Soda pop!" we exclaimed with glee. Secretly, we'd given the stuff up a few months ago, making only the rare and odd exception for Ginger Ale to soothe a tummy ache or a cocktail mixer once or twice. But the allure still held; a whole store devoted to bottles and bottles of soda pop. Well, we had to pull over and check it out! Inside we roamed the aisles, pointing out oddball makes and flavors, or just nodding our heads at the sheer novelty of mainstay sodas like Dr. Pepper served up in slender glass single-serve bottles. Galco's has all you can want and more of the Jones Soda line, recognizable names from the Coca-Cola and Pepsi families, scary varieties of Jolt, and some stuff you've never heard of or haven't seen in ages. Since we're easily enchanted by aesthetic appeal, we plucked off the shelf some Moxie Cream Soda, Boylan's Creamy Red Birch Beer (tastes like Root Beer), and good old Love Potion #69 (the pink one; they didn't have the purple)--actually what we were hoping in our darkest, sickest, worst-taste heart of hearts that they'd have. Naturally, as soon as we began to fill our systems with the sweet fizzy goodness, we fell immediately into a sugar coma, and we're not sure we've come out. It's a cheap high, at around $1.39-1.89 a bottle, and worth it for the throwback to 1995 alone with our Love Potion. Check out their amazing inventory online, or better yet, get down to HP yourself!
Galco's Soda Pop Stop
5702 York Boulevard, Highland Park
