In my food thesaurus, when you look up favorite chocolate syrup, the immediate reply is Fox’ U-Bet. That may date from my childhood, when bottles of the memorable stuff were delivered every few weeks by the big, burly man who also delivered seltzer in the old-fashioned bottles (some of them blue) that came 10 to an extremely heavy case.
The Seltzer Man hardly exists any more and the squirt bottles with the metal triggers are mostly in antique or collectibles stores. They also can be seen in action in 1930s comedies that starred the Marx Brothers or the Three Stooges. They remain an essential ingredient in ice cream sodas, a continuing subject for summer study.
Fox’s U-Bet, developed in Brooklyn more than a century ago and still made there, is the syrup of choice at Jennifer'’ in Clayton, while the Fountain on Locust, at the eastern edge of Grand Center, employs syrup from Torani, which originated in Italy and now is based in San Francisco. Both fountains make very good sodas, with proper proportions of syrup, milk, and ice cream. The Fountain gets a slight edge only because its seltzer comes through the fountain, while Jennifer’s pours it from a bottle of supermarket club soda.
There’s no difference between seltzer and club soda, but the seltzer from the fountain gets to the glass with more fizz (carbon dioxide) than seltzer in a plastic bottle, and the more fizz the more bubbles and more of that catch in the back of the throat that comes from a real egg cream. And, of course, what is an ice cream soda but an egg cream with ice cream? And as the ice cream melts, it dilutes the seltzer, making it smoother while making the soda richer and sweeter.
The ice cream is a major player, of course. The Fountain on Locust uses Cedarcrest, made in Manitowoc, Wis., and claims that the dairy’s process makes it richer, and the use of sugar, rather than fructose, makes it taste better and be better for you. The coconut almond joy is dazzling. Jennifer’s ice cream comes from Holsum, based in Texas, and has good flavor, though not quite as rich. My favorite combination there is mint-chocolate chip, which blends nicely with the soda, kind of like drinking a cooling chocolate-covered mint. And I’d also like to see salted pretzels available, as a sort of lagniappe, with chocolate sodas. Now there’s a pairing.
