On August 28, 2019, the Fizz Soda Bar announced on Facebook that they would be closing their doors for the last time on Saturday, August 31, after just under four years of business in the downtown Johnson City area.
The Fizz Soda Bar brand was created in August of 2015, and they officially opened their doors in mid-November of the same year. The owner, Todd Pate, knew he wanted to start a business in downtown Johnson City and began to take an interest in the ‘craft soda’ movement.
“Sodas and soda floats were a big part of my childhood,” Pate said. “We wanted to put a modern twist on soda floats with unusual flavors and local ingredients. I have two younger boys and an older daughter, so I also wanted to make a space that was accessible for all ages.”
Johnson City has had a long history with soda companies, going as far back as the late 1940s with Mountain Dew and Dr. Enuf spawning from Tri-Cities Beverage company. This, paired along with the loss and sudden resurgence of ‘craft soda’ and ‘soda float’ culture, gave Pate the perfect environment to start Fizz.
There was another motive behind Fizz’s upbringing. “My daughter, Catelyn, had just graduated from East Tennessee State University with a master’s in Criminological Theory and Forensic Anthropology,” Pate said. “We wanted to give her the opportunity to run something of her own and subsequently gave her the manager’s position at Fizz.”
“Along with our connections with ETSU, I graduated from Milligan College around 2004 with a degree in business administration,” Pate continued. “Both colleges are near to our hearts, and we have been fortunate to make so many connections with people on both campuses.”
However, times change and so must we. With his daughter stepping down from Fizz to pursue an opportunity and his boys growing up, Pate says that “this is a good place to step down” and begin to focus on the changes in his family’s life.
After announcing their closure, fans, friends and Instagram family came out to support their favorite soda bar; they received so much business on Saturday that they ran out of product, and they had to close early.
Now the big question is: does the future hold room for a ‘Fizz 2.0’? Pate says, “We are going to maintain the rights to our logo and recipes, so you never know. We have had so much fun in these four years, so we can never truly know.”