# Town Club Beverages, Middletown, R.I.



## TownClubBeverages (May 23, 2020)

FYI to the R.I. collector:  My late father, William Newman, bought a soft drink and ice cream business from Charles Tobak.  The soda factory was first located in the garage behind Sig's Market on Carroll Avenue and in 1945 moved to Aquidneck Avenue in Middletown, R.I.  --The green bottle with enamel label contained either ginger ale or Tom Collins, used in mixed drinks at many off the 100+ sailor-bars in Newport until the down-sizing of the Navy base, then HQ for the Atlantic fleet. --Broken bottles were thrown into a drainage ditch in back of the factory on Newman Road and the property was used as my 'baby sitter' for many a summer until I was old enough to stand behind the bottle-washing machine and help out.  --To compete with Cott my father took on the local distribution of the Connecticut bottler's line but when the Faerber Brothers, Newport's Coca-Cola bottler, out-competed both local brands with the national Fanta, Cott disappeared and my father closed up shop.  In fact, the TCB factory was called "the shop"!


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## ROBBYBOBBY64 (May 23, 2020)

Great piece if first hand history. Thanks for the informative post.


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