I love soda.
I know it’s bad. I know it’s REALLY bad. But I love it. I don’t want to fight about this. I just want you to read this piece and know that I am doing my darnedest to give you an insight on soda in Waco from a place of deep care and affection.
Also, I think Dr Pepper goes perfectly with pizza. I love pizza. It’s my favorite food. And I love Dr Pepper. It’s my favorite soda. It’s a match made in the heaven of my mind: a heaven that is also filled with Big 12 opinions, love for baseball, affinity for cold weather and Norm from Cheers. I think Dr Pepper goes better with pizza than beer. And I really like beer. Don’t hate me.
ANYWAY, here we go! I give you the top 5 places to indulge in Dr Pepper from the fountain in Waco:
5. Terry and Jo’s Food For Thought
I, like a good Baylor sorority girl, LOVE Food for Thought. To be fair, I only ever get one of two things: the chicken salad sandwich (95% of the time) or chicken nachos (5% of the time). However, I do feel absolutely confident that everything they serve is delicious. As for the Dr Pepper on tap, it may be the plastic green cups (or the former, awesome red cups) that really make this tap delicious or maybe it’s the fact that it’s always a little bit off from a true Dr Pepper flavor; I’m not sure. Anything just a little bit off from the original is a hipster win and I think that earned FFT this No. 5 spot. Hipsters probably love being fifth best anyway.
As I am writing this at Dichotomy, I got a text from my friend Ben confirming that we are going to go eat at T-Park today for lunch. This is making me very excited. The teriyaki chicken lunch special is a smorgasbord* of Asian food deliciousness. The styrofoam cups pair beautifully and elegantly with the smooth Dr Pepper spraying from the tap. Truth be told, Dr Pepper in a styrofoam cup is the second best way to drink a DP; the first being from an ice cold can. These are my opinions and I am allowed to have them. Also, the music in T-Park is always on point. Always.
*I had no idea how to spell this and this still may not be correct. Ask Jeeves.
3. Any Whataburger
Whataburger : Dr Pepper :: baseball : hot dogs. Sorry to go all SAT on you. Whataburger and Dr Pepper are two tried-and-true, born-and-raised Texas traditions. They are MFEO (if you don’t get that reference, go watch Sleepless In Seattle right now you heartless monster). Two more thingsL 1) Whataburger uses styrofoam cups and we all know how I feel about DP in styrofoam cups and 2) there is a remarkable consistency in the fountain Dr Pepper there. It spans small towns, big cities, gas station/Whataburger combos, probably even galaxies. You just can’t beat that consistency.
2. Penland Dining Hall at Baylor University
Okay. I know this isn’t the most accessible place for a majority of the people who live in Waco or those passing through, but I am presenting it as a serious contender on some pretty solid experience-based advice: my own. I have some seriously good memories from Baylor circa 2008 that involve waking up on a pile of someone else’s dirty clothes on the floor of Penland room 387, heading downstairs to the dining hall around 11:30 p.m., chowing down on seven bowls of whatever cereal I felt like eating (typically Reese’s Puffs or Crispix), and chugging hard plastic cup after hard plastic cup of ice cold Dr Pepper. Call it a sentimental pick, but it’s my No. 2 nonetheless. Isn’t that what great soda is about anyway? Memories?
Now I present to you my number one choice for best Dr Pepper on tap in the hometown city of this sublime libation:
1. Cici’s Pizza
Before you throw a fit in the comments section let me be clear: this is a ranking of the best Dr Pepper from a soda machine in Waco, Texas. It is NOT a ranking of these restaurants. But I do love Cici’s Pizza. Well, really I love the Spinach Alfredo pizza from Cici’s. It is so good. I have ordered a medium Spinach Alfredo pizza from Cici’s and eaten the whole darn thing myself just because I love this pizza and sometimes hate myself. Also, because college. MOVING ON. The Dr Pepper here is perfect. The combination of carbonated water to syrup is ALWAYS on point and the option of drinking your weight in soda in either a red, hard-plastic cup or a styrofoam to-go cup is never to be taken for granted. I cannot sing the praises of this tap Dr Pepper enough. In fact, it’s precisely what inspired this entire piece. And for that alone I am grateful.
ADDENDUM:
I did not include The Dr Pepper Museum soda fountain because come on. That would be an incredibly unfair advantage, right? Like the 1992 Dallas Cowboys playing the 2004 Dallas Cowboys or the 2014 Baylor Bears versus the 1999 Baylor Bears. It’s basically a whole new league.
