Foxon Park: Four generations, real sugar and white birch on Foxon Boulevard

Plenty of East Haven families can tell you which flavor came home with the Friday night pizza. White birch. Cream. Gassosa with the clam pie. All of it comes from a low brick building at 103 Foxon Blvd. with a small red awning over the door that reads Foxon Park Beverages, Inc.

The soda maker has been on that spot, and in the same family, since 1922. Its regular sodas are still sweetened with real sugar. You can still walk in, fill a case from the stacks, and pay cash.

A spring, a horse and buggy, and a choice

The story starts with Matteo Naclerio, an Italian immigrant who bought a piece of land in the Foxon section of East Haven that had a spring of good-tasting water on it. In a 2022 centennial feature, Connecticut Magazine writer Randall Beach described how Naclerio first bottled that water and delivered it to his neighbors by horse and buggy.

Family lore adds a twist. According to a 2016 Daily Nutmeg profile, quoted in Preservation Connecticut’s mill record for the building, Naclerio was choosing between a funeral home and a beverage factory when he settled on the land. Soda came in the late 1920s. Water sales dropped as the Depression set in, and Jay Brancati, who married into the family, explained that Naclerio began making soda “to give them more for their money,” including free bottles with regular water orders. Demand for the soda soon passed the water.

Four generations under one roof

In the 2022 feature, Matteo’s grandson Anthony Naclerio, then 70, was still working among the bottles, tuning the machinery and checking the ingredients. He started as a kid alongside his father, Anthony Naclerio Sr., “taking straws out of the bottles,” and went full-time in 1973.

“I have a lot of family pride,” he told the magazine. “I’m the third generation. We’re doing things the way my grandfather did it. The only changes were upgrading the equipment. One thing we don’t mess with is the product.” Asked for the secret, he said: “We’re not afraid to work!” And: “We never changed our sugar.” He also said he had “never worked one hour for anybody else.”

The magazine reported that his brother, Raymond, was co-owner at the time and handled distribution. Anthony’s daughter, Jessica Caporale, the fourth generation, was the office manager and helped with production. Brancati, Anthony’s son-in-law, ran overall operations. Back then the company had about 300 accounts, from restaurants to gas stations, shipped as far as Florida and California, and filled 800 to 1,100 cases on most days.

“We’re still considered a mom-and-pop operation,” Brancati said. “Which we like.” Caporale said first-time visitors often look around and ask, “This is it?”

Staying on Foxon Boulevard

In September 2023, rumors spread online that Foxon Park was leaving town. Casanova Distributors, which sells the soda across Connecticut, had broken ground on a production building in Plymouth. Brancati, by then the company’s vice president, shut the rumor down in the New Haven Register: “We’re not leaving East Haven, that’s not happening. We love it here, been here for 101 years. We’re not going anywhere.”

He said the company was weighing letting Casanova bottle some soda in Plymouth to keep up with demand, and said the change would not take jobs from East Haven. Casanova’s website still says Foxon Park manufactures its soda in East Haven. In 2023 the company also teamed with Branford’s Thimble Island Brewing on hard sodas in cream and white birch.

Why it’s on every pizza table

Ask New Haven pizza people about soda and you get Foxon Park. Connecticut Magazine noted that Pepe’s, Sally’s and Modern all carry it. Brancati’s explanation: “The Italian immigrants, they all got started together.” Closer to home, Coe Avenue’s Nicky’s Place lists Foxon Park bottles on its menu.

What locals say

Google reviewers mostly talk about the walk-in experience. “They are an icon in East Haven, CT,” wrote Diana, who noted the soda is made on site and that birch beer is the most popular. Carl kept it short: “Factory atmosphere. Best deals are to buy by the case.” Daniel added the one thing first-timers forget: “Remember: all transactions are Cash Only. Love the selection and bulk availability.”

Robin wrote about grabbing “10 cases of 12oz bottles” on trips to the factory. “Our favorites are Gassosa and Ginger Ale. Repack the bottles and return them directly to Foxon when done too.”

The Facebook reviews read like family memories. Teresa wrote that she has been drinking Foxon Park since the 1960s, when an aunt on Taft Street in Foxon introduced her to it; now her son loves the root beer and her daughter the cherry. Victor’s earliest memory is of grabbing a pie and a Foxon Park cola at Luigi’s. And Kevin needed only five words: “White Birch Beer! It’s life changing.”

What to try

Foxon Park lists 17 flavors on its website, regular and diet. Here are the ones East Haven talks about.

White Birch

“The most popular of them all,” according to Connecticut Magazine. The company describes “a refreshing and subtle wintergreen taste,” a New England favorite for years.

Gassosa

A classic Italian lemon-lime that the company calls its signature soda. Staff told Daily Nutmeg it goes best with a white clam pizza. The magazine found it lightly sweet, “closer to San Pellegrino than 7-Up.”

Iron Brew

“It is tough to describe Iron Brew,” the website admits. It has roots in Scotland, but Foxon’s amber version is its own thing. Daily Nutmeg called it a mix of other Foxon flavors, including root beer, cherry, cream soda and kola.

Root Beer

The company calls it “an old-time favorite.” One reviewer this year compared it to root beer barrel candies.

Cream

“The soda fountain of yesterday,” per the company. In the 2022 magazine feature, one fan said Foxon Park cream was the only cream soda she would drink, a Friday-pizza habit from childhood.

Kola

Foxon’s spelling, made with real sugar. The company says it “will challenge any of the big guys.” There is a diet version too.

Cherry

Ruby-red and tangy. Teresa’s daughter picks cherry, and one reviewer this year named cherry and white birch as favorites.

How to buy it

The 2022 magazine piece explains how a walk-in works. Go in, ring the doorbell in the entry room, grab an empty box and fill it with whatever flavors you like from the stacks. The family stopped home delivery years ago because of cost. You can also order cases, variety packs, pint glasses and bottle-cap merch from the company’s online shop.

If you go

Where: 103 Foxon Blvd. (Route 80), East Haven
Phone: 203-467-7874
Hours, per the company’s website: Monday–Friday, 8 a.m.–3:30 p.m.; closed Saturday and Sunday
Payment: Walk-ins are cash only
Online: foxonpark.com, online shop and Facebook