Christina Procaccianti’s independent apothecary and soda fountain in South Kingstown provides her clients with a package hard to find elsewhere: expertly filled medical prescriptions, natural medicines and soda jerk-served, all-natural drinks and ice cream.
Moreover, Green Line Apothecary will deliver your medical prescriptions free of charge in the pharmacy’s restored 1949 Chevrolet panel van.
The business celebrated its first anniversary with a gala celebration on May 19 in its parking lot. A happy crowd jammed the lot to watch a free movie, the 1978 classic musical “Grease,” eat free popcorn and sample Green Line’s latest “limited-edition, natural ice cream,” cookies and cream.
Procaccianti, born in New Jersey 34 years ago, said she first “fell in love with independent pharmacies” as a young girl helping her father in his greeting card business by arranging and changing greeting cards on pharmacy racks.
“Everything about those old mom-and-pop pharmacies, with their pharmacists who knew everybody and their soda fountains, was great,” she said. “I always wanted to be a pharmacist like that.”
Her initial major step in that direction was graduating from Northeastern University in Boston in 2007 with a six-year doctor of pharmacy degree. Northeastern is also where she met her future husband, Ken, who came from Narragansett.
“Actually,” Procaccianti said, “we first met on the Boston subway Green Line and he proposed to me at the Green Line Haymarket Station. Coming up with a name for my apothecary a few years later was easy.”
Procaccianti became the mother of three children while practicing her professional career at Wal-Mart in Lynn, Mass., and Mass General Hospital in Boston; later when she became a pharmacist, in Mystic, Conn., at McQuade’s, one of a small chain of grocery-pharmacies, the Procacciantis moved to South Kingstown.
Then last year, Procaccianti opened her independent pharmacy and soda fountain on Wakefield village’s Main Street – a few blocks away from three giant competitors, CVS Health Corp., Rite Aid and Walgreens.
“I felt it was a good place to return to the classic American drugstore and that’s what I have created,” she said. “Our pharmacy matches any other big-chain pharmacy in its ability to fill prescriptions, and costs no more. But we also feature an authentic, antique soda fountain that offers the 19th-century and early 20th-century classic sodas that soda jerks once served to cover the bad taste of medicine.
“And we sell many natural, homeopathic and locally made products that can sometimes be less risky and more effective than some prescribed medications,” she said.
“We know our customers, their medical histories and needs,” she added. “We call them by their first names. The apothecary is a community gathering place. Those are the hallmarks of the classic American drugstore.”
She’s also proud to have self-financed the business.
“I’m one of the few women chief pharmacist/owners around,” Procaccianti said. “But not for long. You see a lot more women than men enrolling today in our major pharmacy colleges.”
Green Line’s original 1940s soda fountain – now in place with five stools, a wooden top and marble sides – was found nearby in a North Kingstown warehouse after much searching.
The 1920s-era metal dishes for ice cream and large soda glasses were collected. The now shiny white- and green-panel delivery van was found in Arizona.
Research on drinks and ice cream once served at American soda fountains has resulted in a line of all-natural sodas and ice cream. The soda-fountain menu includes orange soda, colas, root beer and cream soda, along with old-fashioned drinks such as egg cream and lime rickey; ice cream flavors include seasonal specialties such as “Charlie Brown” pumpkin.
“What we don’t serve,” Procaccianti noted, “are contemporary, chemical additives such as high fructose corn syrup and aspartame.”
As a chief pharmacist, she also doesn’t automatically fill prescriptions without considering whether a natural remedy might be more effective and should be considered.
“We take a holistic approach to the needs of our clients,” she said.
In its first 12 months, Procaccianti said Green Line has gone from “no revenue to profitability and expects continuing growth in its second year.”
Initially, she has been the only full-time employee, supported by part-timers. Now she plans to add a pharmacy assistant and what used to be called a soda jerk.
Procaccianti said her “personal objective is to make a positive contribution to our clients’ health and welfare.
“I want to be the community pharmacist here,” she said.
