Dublin, TX

The Whole Town Wants To Be a Pepper

Dublin, Texas, changes its name to Dr Pepper for a single weekend each June—switching the city limits sign to mark the beginnings of the world’s oldest Dr Pepper plant among the rolling hills and live oaks of west-central Texas.

The name change in the second weekend of June illustrates the close-knit relationship between the bottling plant and the community of 3,250.

“We can’t have Dublin without Dr Pepper, and we can’t have Dr Pepper without Dublin,” says Kent Crouch, assistant general manager of The Dublin Dr Pepper Bottling Co.

Established in 1891, the plant still bottles the soft drink once a week in the original building, using a 1940s machine. Crouch says many people make the hour detour off Interstate 20 for the special nectar, which still uses pure cane sugar rather than cheaper corn syrup now used by most bottlers—including other Dr Pepper plants.

“It isn’t unusual to see people leave with 10 cases,” Crouch says.

Al Gonzales, the owner of Main Street Barber Shop in the historic section of Grapevine, Texas, (pop. 37,500) says he likes the sweeter taste.

“I love it, not only because it is my preference for soft drinks, but it is a good marketing tool for the barber shop, too,” he says. Gonzales drives the four-hour roundtrip every 60 days, buying about 100 cases of Dr Pepper.

The richer taste of the sugary concoction, along with community support and a region full of folks who “want to be Peppers,” as a popular ad campaign put it, have made the company’s small distribution route overwhelmingly successful. The route within a 40-mile radius of the plant is the same one once serviced by horse and buggy. Dublin Dr Pepper has a 60 percent market share of all the soft drinks sold in the region, selling 480,000 cases annually.

Dr Pepper, the oldest of America’s major soft drink brands, was invented in Waco, Texas, in 1885 by Charles Alderton, a young pharmacist working at Morrison’s Old Corner Drug Store.

Crouch had his first taste of the Dr Pepper legacy as a child when the company’s previous owner, Bill Kloster, would pass out Dr Peppers to the children playing outside the plant on bottling day.

Mark Kloster, the Dublin plant general manager and the late Bill Kloster’s grandson, says everyone has a story about his grandfather or Dr Pepper.

“He was all about community service, and that is one of the big reasons why we have such a good relationship between us and the whole area we serve,” the younger Kloster says.

That friendly feeling carries over to employees at the Dr Pepper Museum and Old Doc’s Soda Shop, says Jeff Pendleton, art director for the Dr Pepper plant. The plant has offered tours since 1993, attracting about 40,000 visitors each year to Dublin.

City leaders are hoping to use those visitors as a springboard to boost the economy and help the town weather the volatility faced by farming and dairies. They’ve attracted new businesses, cleaned dilapidated areas, and promoted the town’s history through its museums.

Sarah Johnson, who helps out at her sister’s Touch of Irish coffee house and café, says merchants hope plant visitors will stay and see the shops and restaurants. “We’ve already heard some people say they’re coming back for the food,’’ she says.

A rodeo museum highlighting the town’s history as the home and headquarters of the World Championship Rodeo from 1940 to 1959 is in the works and will be located next door to the local history museum. A pedestrian parkway and riverwalk are planned.

But most agree the Dr Pepper plant is the big draw.

“This is something Dublin has,” Carolyn Harbin, a lifelong resident, says of the plant, “that no one else has.”

Tonie Auer is a freelance writer in Denton, Texas.

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