Beverages

Two quite different shelves share this page: mineral water and soft drinks that taste like the ones people remember, and a beer fridge of Central European lagers.

Borjomi is the one to know. Naturally carbonated volcanic mineral water from the Borjomi gorge in Georgia, bottled since 1890, unmistakably salty and mineral — an acquired taste that people who grew up with it will drive across town for. The Coca-Cola and Pepsi here are European-bottled and taste different from the domestic versions, which is exactly why customers ask for them.

The beer runs Polish and German: Tyskie, Okocim, Harnaś and Żywiec from Poland, Berliner Geschichte and Zittauer Burgerbräu Schwarzbier from Germany, Kalnapilis from Lithuania and Kyivske from Ukraine. The German lagers are brewed to the Reinheitsgebot, the 1516 purity law — water, barley, hops and yeast, nothing else.

Beer is sold in store only to customers aged 21 or over, with ID. Soft drinks and mineral water ship anywhere in the United States.