Maine Root, Portland, Maine, has evolved a lot since the day 11 years ago when Founder Matthew Seiler decided to brew his own organic soda. Seiler was restoring boats on the waterfront in Portland, Maine, in the summer of 2000 when a high school friend opened up Flat Bread Pizza Co., an organic pizza company, just a few wharfs down from where Seiler was working. Seiler was hired by his friend to build the clay oven and stayed on to wait tables. But Seiler realized that the organic restaurant didn’t have the beverages to match, so that’s when he went home and mixed up his own batches of root beer.