Lombardo family sells Sam's Pop & Beer Shop but new owner vows to keep business the same

Sam’s Pop & Beer Shop in Arnold has a new owner.

After nearly 100 years in business, members of the Lombardo family, which founded the iconic beer and soda pop distributor in the 1920s, decided to retire.

“My brothers and I are third generation here, and we’re all in our 60s,” Sandy (Lombardo) Danison said. “We had no one to step into place, so we just decided in order for us to retire, we had to sell.”

Danison’s grandfather, Nunzio Lombardo, started the business in 1927, and her father, Sam Lombardo Sr., took it over when he retired.

It eventually fell to Danison and her brothers Sam Lombardo Jr. and Louis Lombardo.

The Lombardos started looking for a potential buyer in March, and they found a perfect fit with Terry Madden, a former business consultant from Irwin.

Danison had a good feeling about him from the get-go.

“We talked about things that we had done, and he said he would keep everything the same, which made me and my two brothers feel very confident that the legacy would continue with him,” said Danison, 69, of New Kensington.

Madden, 40, is emphatic about keeping things just the way they are — the way that enabled the business to remain successful for close to a century.

Everything will stay the same, including the name.

“Coming from a close-knit family myself, that feeling that they had with the community was important to me,” he said.

Madden officially bought the business in September. He likes the small town feel of the shop and the fact the Lombardos know everyone that comes in by name — a rarity in this day and age.

“I felt if I came in and made wholesale changes that would be a detriment to the business,” he said.

People want Sam’s pop

The business has a rich and colorful history.

It used to make and sell more than 20 flavors of soda pop and was one of the first Dr Pepper bottlers above the Mason–Dixon line.

People from all over the Alle-Kiski Valley enjoyed Sam’s diverse menu of pop flavors such as orange, cherry, root beer, birch beer, sarsaparilla, orange pineapple, mint ginger ale, and cream soda.

All were made with real cane sugar.

Sam’s stopped making pop years ago because it got to be too costly, but that hasn’t stopped people from asking about it.

“To this day — I’m not kidding you, especially around the holidays — people come in (and ask), ‘Where’s your pop?’ ” Danison said. “We were very well known for our soft drinks.”

All three siblings worked at the shop.

Sam Lombardo Jr. said it was rewarding to be able to go to work with his father.

He estimates that he made more than three million gallons of soda pop within a 10-year period.

“It’s been a good livelihood,” he said. “We all have been educated. We could have all gone anywhere to work. Dad was special.”

Sam Lombardo Jr. and Danison are retired, but Louis Lombardo still works at the shop. It’s the only place that he’s ever worked.

“I’ve never received pay from anywhere other than right here,” said Louis Lombardo, 61, of Upper Burrell.

Like working in Mayberry

Louis Lombardo said working in Arnold was like working in Mayberry.

Former Mayor Willie DeMao used to come in to read the newspaper, and the police chief would come in looking for him. The police chief’s mother would also stop by to see her son, and when she did she would bring Louis Lombardo a piece of cake or pie.

“It was the greatest,” he said.

Because the business has been around for so long, there are many stories to tell.

Like the time Woodrow Wilson “Foot” Clements, the former president and CEO of Dr Pepper Co., came to Arnold.

“They gave him a train ticket and said, ‘We got a new bottler up in Pennsylvania; go up and spend a couple of months with (him),’ ” said Sam Lombardo Jr., 71, of New Kensington. “We picked him up. It was snowing. He didn’t have boots. He didn’t have an overcoat. He’d just come from Texas. Never saw snow and got, as I understand it, in a snowball battle … with my aunts.”

Clements also didn’t know where to live, so Nunzio and his wife, Josephine, took him in.

Clements stayed with them for three months and became fond of Josephine’s cooking. He made sure to tell the Lombardos about that at a bottling convention.

“He said, ‘I still dream about your grandmother’s spaghetti,’ ” Sam Lombardo Jr. said.

Louis Lombardo thinks Madden will be successful because the community needs a place like Sam’s — a place people have said feels like home. He plans to stay awhile longer to help Madden out before he also retires.

“If there’s a constant everybody knows that they can count on, Sam’s Pop Shop is Arnold’s constant,” he said. “It’s a great place to be. Small, hometown great.”

Madasyn Czebiniak is a Tribune-Review staff writer. You can contact Madasyn at 724-226-4702, mczebiniak@tribweb.com, or via Twitter @maddyczebstrib.