Drink Barq's. It's Good​

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Historic Barq’s Neon Sign & Display Installed at Southern Food & Beverage Museum

 

A neon sign that hung at Barq’s Beverages of Baton Rouge’s bottling plant from 1949 until 2000, along with a display case containing rare historic ephemera and promotional items, was installed at the Southern Food and Beverage Museum in New Orleans. The unique sign is the only known example to exist in the red Louisiana Barq’s trade dress.

 

It is significant to note that after the Mississippi Barq’s descendants and the New Orleans operations were sold, Barq’s Beverages of Baton Rouge and its 41 parish territory remained the last family-owned portion of Barq’s.

 

Edouard Barq, born in New Orleans, began experimenting with cordials and flavored soft drinks before moving to the Mississippi Gulf Coast in 1898. There he met and hired 10 year old Jesse Louis Robinson. Robinson became the ultimate apprentice and eventually moved to New Orleans to establish his own soft drink business. In 1934, Barq perfected his root beer formula and branded it in a diamond shouldered glass bottle. Robinson was given the exclusive rights to make the secret formula and distributed the product throughout Louisiana. The two enterprises differed in trade dress—Louisiana wore red and Mississippi, blue, but otherwise coordinated with each other.

 

Barq’s Root Beer quickly became a cultural icon and part of the Gulf Coast culinary landscape. In 2000, the Baton Rouge Barq’s holdings were sold  to Coca-Cola marking the end of an era. Today, Barq’s is the number one root beer in the world.

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Many thanks to Nate Sheaffer of Big Sexy Neon for the beautiful restoration of our neon sign, Santanu Majumdar of Counterform for his help in creating the shadow box installation, and the entire staff at the Southern Food & Beverage Museum.

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