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Walking to lunch last week, I happened upon a colorful new business in Writer Square that makes Willy Wonka’s legendary chocolate factory seem like a dour health-food store.
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Rocket Fizz Soda Pop and Candy Shop—AKA, The Place Where I Will Someday Be Buried—opened its doors a few months ago with the mission of providing two things Americans can’t get enough of: sugar and nostalgia. The place is literally floor-to-ceiling and wall-to-wall with soda, candy, and other Rockwellian artifacts such as vintage signs and comic book figurines, a staggering array that will inspire you to reflect on gauzy memories of bygone years—and inspire your cardiologist and dentist to exchange gleeful high-fives.
Remember that soda you could only get near your grandmother’s house in upstate New York? Or that taffy from your childhood summer camp that you can still sort of taste? They’ve got it, and then some: Zotz, Pop Rocks, Lik-M-Aid, Charleston Chew, even the banned-by-the-PC-police candy cigarettes. You name it; they probably sell it. (The only thing the store has apparently had trouble tracking down is imported sweets.) Hell, they even distribute a pre-nostalgic soda flavor named for another pop culture heartthrob we’ll one day remember fondly.
OK, maybe not, but for a lunchtime pick-me-up, head over to Rocket Fizz. Sure, it might also mean a 3 p.m. sugar crash, but they’ve probably got something for that, too.