By Alexi Zentner
The menu at Soda Fountain Square is cheap and straightforward, with chili, chicken tenders, a chef salad, hot dogs, burgers and the standard sandwiches for $5 to $7. Even the most expensive items on the regular menu—the country-fried steak and the homemade meatloaf—will run you less than a 10-spot. The standard breakfast fare is also available all day. The food is workmanlike and certainly better than that at many of the other diners and pancake houses around town, but it will not knock your socks off.
What might, however, is the atmosphere. Soda Fountain Square manages to hit just the right notes (yes, pun intended) with an antique-radio motif behind the soda fountain and an understated evocation of 1950s diner culture. Instead of covering every inch of space with chintzy reproduction decorations, the designer has gone for a subtle feel with vintage advertisements framed as art, gleaming chrome-ribbed tables and red vinyl tops on the stools at the soda-fountain bar. The restaurant is open—tables are not packed tightly together—and a party room makes a nice addition.
The ice-cream menu is sure to attract the young ones, but kids won’t be the only ones tempted by the selections. Old-fashioned ice-cream sodas include the Canary Island (vanilla syrup, seltzer, vanilla ice cream), the Razzle-Dazzle (strawberry syrup, seltzer, orange sherbet) and the Chocolate Ice Cream Soda (do you really need an explanation?). Then there are the shakes, malts, phosphates and the nostalgic New York favorite, the egg cream, plus floats (seven varieties), banana splits (five kinds), sundaes (a dozen) and even “special” sundaes (eight choices). And those who somehow manage to resist the ice-cream menu will still be faced with the temptation of pie, cobbler, gooey butter cake, lemon meringue pie or cupcakes. It’s sweet-tooth heaven.
1801 Park, 314-241-0099, www.sodafountainsquare.com; 6:30 a.m.–midnight Tue–Thu, 6:30 a.m.–1 a.m. Fri-Sat, 7:30 a.m.–9 p.m. Sun.
