FiiZ Drinks president Scott Ball on sustaining dirty soda’s momentum
Take-Away with Sam Oches
Nation's Restaurant News
4.9 • 17 Ratings
🗓️ 3 September 2025
⏱️ 43 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
In this episode of Take-Away with Sam Oches, Sam talks with Scott Ball, president of FiiZ Drinks, a specialty soda shop franchise that started in Utah in 2014 and now has more than 70 locations across the U.S. With about 150 locations in the pipeline, FiiZ is capitalizing on the incredible rise in dirty soda’s popularity, but the brand features a wide range of beverages plus food items like cookies, popcorn, pretzels, and cookie dough bites. Scott joined FiiZ about a year ago after spending 17 years as the head of a Dunkin’ franchise, and he recently sat down with Sam in person at a location outside Columbus, Ohio, to talk about the category’s remarkable growth and the keys to sustaining that momentum in ways that past trends could not.
In this conversation, you’ll find out why:
- The secret ingredient to dirty soda’s success is the fun factor
- The beverage category is an all-day opportunity
- Menu customization is not dead
- Nontraditional could be fuel for the ongoing beverage boom
- The ability to innovate could make or break beverage brands
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Have feedback or ideas for Take-Away? Email Sam at sam.oches@informa.com.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | 55% of Gen Z and millennials say social media reviews are the top reason they try a restaurant, |
| 0:05.5 | and 73% have visited a restaurant in the last three months because of one. |
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| 0:21.2 | Hey there, welcome to Takeaway with Sam Ocas, a podcast from Nation's Restaurant News. |
| 0:25.9 | I'm Sam Ocas, editor-in-chief here at NRN, and this is the show where I give you an all-access |
| 0:30.3 | pass to the restaurant industry's most influential decision-makers. |
| 0:34.4 | This week, I'm talking with Scott Ball, the president of Fizz Drinks, a specialty |
| 0:40.0 | soda shop franchise that started in Utah in 2014 and now has more than 70 locations across the |
| 0:47.0 | U.S. With about 150 locations in the pipeline, Fizz is clearly capitalizing on the incredible |
| 0:53.6 | rise in Dirty Soda's popularity. |
| 0:56.9 | But the brand features a wide range of beverages, including energy drinks, soda water, hot |
| 1:02.1 | chocolate, frozen drinks, and more, plus food items like cookies, popcorn, pretzels, and |
| 1:08.3 | cookie dough bites. |
| 1:09.7 | Scott joined Fizz about a year ago after spending |
| 1:12.4 | 17 years as the head of a Dunkin franchise, and he recently sat down with me in person at a |
| 1:18.4 | location outside of Columbus, Ohio, to talk about the category's remarkable growth and the |
| 1:23.7 | keys to sustaining momentum that in ways that past trends could not do. |
| 1:29.0 | In this interview, you will learn more about why the secret ingredient to dirty soda's success |
| 1:33.0 | is its fun factor, why non-traditional could be fuel for the ongoing beverage boom, and why |
| 1:39.4 | the ability to innovate could make or break beverage brands. |
... |
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