LOYAL. LOCAL. COMPLETE.
PARIS – On Saturday, August 17, The Fizz Soda Shop and Eatery, a fan-favorite restaurant that burst onto the Paris culinary scene in 2020, announced plans to close, effective August 30, via Facebook. Just three weeks later, a second post caught clientele by surprise – The Fizz will be back.
The small blue building, located at 404 S. Main Street, will once again serve as a hub for sparkling energy beverages and savory snacks starting next Thursday, Oct. 17. A soft opening is scheduled from 1 p.m. to 6 p.m. The Fizz will open again during the same hours the following day before serving customers from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Saturday, Oct. 19.
After the soft opening, The Fizz will return to normal hours of operation (9 a.m. to 7 p.m.) beginning Monday, Oct. 21.
At the center of The Fizz’s triumphant return sits the Cowger family—Paris residents who purchased the company from original co-owners Trisha and Eno Vitale. Amber and Jason Cowger own New Goshen Pub, located across the state line in New Goshen, Ind.
The Cowgers have developed a good rapport with their clientele since purchasing the pub in late 2022. Now, they hope to see some of those relationships draw a new crowd to the Fizz in the coming weeks.
“We’ve gained a lot of very good relationships… a lot of people, for some odd reason, have come to like us, they treat us like family. They want to support both sides of this,” Jason Cowger explained.
Back in Paris, the Cowger family will have plenty of loyal customers ready to pledge their support from the start of their new venture.
“Everywhere we go in public, somebody’s stopping us, excited for us to get it back open. And (they’re) glad that we are carrying it on the same as before,” Amber Cowger told a Prairie Press reporter.
While Amber and Jason took the lead on refurbishing and updating the New Goshen Pub, their venture at The Fizz will be a family affair. Amber Cowger’s daughter Mackenzie Seaton worked at The Fizz for roughly three years, the most recent of which she spent as a manager. Seaton was drawn to the restaurant’s vibrant brand, atmosphere and dedicated customer base.
When the announcement of The Fizz’s closure was made, the Cowger family faced a decision.
“We asked her (Mackenzie) if she would rather do this or go a different direction, and she said that she loved the business, she loved her customers, she loved the job here. So we decided to do it as a family,” Amber Cowger recalled.
“One day, we’re sitting there thinking, ‘Do we do this?’ And next thing you know, we’re doing this,” Jason Cowger added.
Now, with the help of Seaton’s husband Wade Seaton and her sister Colleene Smith, the family is pushing forward to the restaurant’s soft launch – or soft re-launch.
The family hopes to incorporate some fan-favorite dishes from the New Goshen Pub into The Fizz’s longstanding “daily special” rotation, including staples like Italian beef sandwiches and funnel cake.
“We will bring items over from the pub as specials, and we’ll take some stuff from over here to the pub as a special, and just kind of integrate the two,” Jason Cowger said.
Even so, honoring the restaurant’s legacy, particularly its drink and food menu, is of the utmost importance.
“But for the most part, it’s all going to be the same. We don’t want to go change anything that’s not broken,” Amber Cowger concluded.
So far, the process of getting the operation up and running again is moving in the right direction.
“As far as starting a business, you’ve always got your typical day-to-day headaches with the state certificates and all that. (But) it’s all gone pretty smooth,” Cowger explained.
The family was quick to express their gratitude to the community and everyone who has followed The Fizz’s journey on social media. The positivity spreading through the restaurant’s fanbase is remarkable according to Smith.
“You never see anything negative. All the reviews are always positive,” she said.
“We just hope to be able to carry that on,” Jason Cowger added.
The Cowgers also gave a heartfelt “thank you” to the Vitales, who built The Fizz and paved the way for its continued success.
“Trish has been amazing with getting everything set up and being so organized. She has been so supportive,” Amber Cowger said. “We just hope that we can make her proud with her dream that she had and created.”
For more updates, follow The Fizz on Facebook and stop by during the soft opening on October 17-19.