Salem throwback soda shop owners unveil new back patio for summer season
It’s been four years since Lesley and Wil Kline opened Kast Iron Soda Works, and they’ve described business so far as “awesome.”
When customers come inside Kast Iron Soda Works, they’ll see 550 varieties of glass bottled soda on the wall of the screen-free soda shop in Salem.
“Our slogan is ‘Slow down, Drink up,’ with emphasis on the slow down,” Lesley said. “We want you to walk in, take a pause and enjoy the people you’re with. Laugh, make memories and enjoy something neat, novel and nostalgic.”
In May, Lesley and Wil unveiled their newly constructed back patio that was built by Black Dog Construction at 420 E. State St. in Salem.
Last year, Kast Iron Soda Works received a $10,000 Backing Small Businesses grant from American Express and Main Street America for structural improvements to the rear entrance of their shop.
“Our back door had a little bit of a bend to it so it didn’t seal completely,” Lesley said. “In the winter time, we couldn’t keep the back room warm. We had a ramp going up to it, but the ramp was cracked.”
Lesley said they utilized the grant money to replace the ramp and back door of the building.
“But we started thinking, ‘What if we just completely clean up this space? Let’s replace the roof. Let’s make it a nice patio,’” she said. “It snowballed from there into a really nice project and it turned out beautifully.”
The business also released two newly bottled flavors of soda: vanilla cola and orange cream with a tangerine.
“People really have fun in our space because we function like an old time soda fountain,” Lesley said. “We have syrups and a soda fountain with bubbly water; we hand craft colas and different drinks the way they used to in the old time soda fountain era. We do all of the old throwback stuff, like phosphates and brown cows.”
According to Lesley, they’ve built connections with neighbors in Salem who also own businesses.
“We try to bring in our friends, neighbors and community partners as much as we can to provide product for us, like when we do a cold brew cream soda, we use our neighbors LiB’s Market,” she said. “They roast their own coffee and we use their cold brew concentrate, blend it with our vanilla cream and make this cold brew cream.”
