In Business: Retired Veteran Brings Dirty Sodas to Bemidji with New ‘Blue Ox Soda Shop’

Malls are a place to walk around, go to stores, and sit down for a quick lunch before getting back to shopping. The Paul Bunyan Mall is home to all of these things except for one…it has spent several years without a restaurant. Eric Cerroni and his family decided to change this with the opening of the Blue Ox Soda Shop.

“That was really nice to pull in the parking lot today and see all the cars and all the shoppers and then people out in the mall again.” said Blue Ox Soda Shop customer Diane Johnson, “It’s been a while.”

“It’s exciting.” said customer Emilie Peterson, “The mall needed A place where we could sit down, have a cup of coffee or soda, and now they have hot food. And I’m very happy that it’s here.”

“Every day there’s a couple more people, a couple more people, a couple more people.” said Blue Ox Soda Shop owner and proprietor Eric Cerroni, “And as word gets out, especially with the grand opening prices that we have right now, and you can get a meal for under ten bucks with a personalized drink pretty cheap. And we did that so that way people can maybe be a little more willing to come and give us a shot.”

The grand opening on Saturday showcased their main attraction – dirty sodas. The drinks are especially popular in Utah, where the Cerroni’s are from, due to the high population of people who do not drink alcohol. Instead of cocktails, there is a lot of soda drinking, and people add different flavored syrups and cream. The original purpose of the shop was to be focused on sodas, but community survey showed that people were looking for more food options. So the Blue Ox Soda Shop introduced things like burgers and chicken tenders into their menu.

Eric is a retired U.S. veteran who opened the shop with his wife and three children.

“My whole life, that’s all I wanted to do was serve my country.” said Cerroni, “Unfortunately, I had to take off the uniform and and that was really hard. And I’ve been looking for other ways to maybe make up for that feeling of not doing what I’ve always wanted. Mom and pop shops like this, they help bring people together. So far, the whole community is really involved in getting this going because the community wanted it. Without their help and support, I wouldn’t have been able to get here.

The shop is open seven days a week, from 10 A.M. to 7 P.M. Monday through Saturday and from noon to 5 P.M. on Sundays.