Rocket Fizz Soda Pop & Candy Shop opens in St. Charles

ST. CHARLES – Heather Rooney on Thursday looked at the hundreds of soda bottles in front of her and smiled.

“I’m obsessed with this place – I could be here all day,” said Rooney, a St. Charles resident.

Rooney and her two daughters, Lily, 13, and Norah, 9, were three of the many shoppers who visited Rocket Fizz Soda Pop & Candy Shop, at 301 W. Main St., St. Charles, on its first day open to the public.

People gazed in awe at the 4,000 different types of candy from different decades in the colorful store. There are 97 flavors of salt water taffy and more than 500 different types of bottled soda, said Robert Brescia, franchisee of the St Charles and Glenview locations of Rocket Fizz.

Brescia opened the Glenview Rocket Fizz in 2014 and decided to expand to St. Charles.

“I love the festivals they do here, [and] I love the downtown area,” Brescia, an Elgin resident, said of St. Charles. “We just feel very at home here. St. Charles is an amazing place.”

Brescia settled on the 301 W. Main St. property because it had the old-time feel he needed from the store. Candy brings back memories for people, Brescia said.

“It does take you back to your childhood,” said Ryan Welch, a Polk, Ohio, resident at the store Thursday.

Welch was in St. Charles for the 2015 National Holstein Convention, which concludes today at Pheasant Run Resort.

He and fellow Polk resident Jeneva Auble saw the storefront and remembered another Rocket Fizz location once was featured on the CBS TV show “Undercover Boss.”

One of Welch’s purchases included cookie dough soda, one of the many unique flavors the store offers. Concert posters, gag gifts and masks also adorn the shop’s walls.

Brescia said he already has received plenty of enthusiastic feedback about the St. Charles location. It will be open from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. Monday through Saturday and 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday.

One of Brescia’s daughters, Deana, will manage the St. Charles location, while another daughter, Amber, manages the Glenview location. He and his wife, Tonya, travel between the stores as needed.

“This is one of our dreams come true,” Brescia said of the store.

If you go
What: Rocket Fizz Soda Pop & Candy Shop
Where: 301 W. Main St., St. Charles
Information: Call 630-797-5889 or visit www.facebook.com/RocketFizzSaintCharles