Mel Stuart, the director of the original Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, made this video for a TV show which was never to be. This segment takes us into the home of Richie Strell, the seltzer siphon king. Although this show was never produced, Richie has a copy andRead More →
I see I have been posting more on the Facebook group this season, and not here. So here are two images, one to make you smile and one to make your groan: New seltzer cartoon in the New Yorker! Polar Seltzer’s newest holiday limited edition flavors: Eggnog, Candy Cane, PumpkinRead More →
So this month I finished the book proposal and we have begun to shop it around. Last week I was excited to get my first book rejection. Why was I excited? Because after more than 5 years of thinking about and writing the book, a reject somehow makes it feelRead More →
This week I wrote a piece for the Forward’s blog about the debate over the best way to make an egg cream. I interviewed a few egg cream “experts” then opened it up to their readers. It was a lot of fun to put together, and even more fun toRead More →
Ah! Just came across this video of the new take on the Egg Cream being made at the four-star Eleven Madison Park. What do you think? Would you drink it?Read More →
There is a new Egg Cream article, Egg Creams Make a Comeback, in the Forward this week. New York is having an egg cream revival — again. That thought occurred to me in July, while parked on a counter stool at Brooklyn Farmacy & Soda Fountain, in Carroll Gardens, sippingRead More →
Lofty Persuits, a florida-based soda fountain, has an amazing menu, offering as much food to buy as history that satisfies. You can view all of it here. Even more remarkable is page 5, what the New York Times has described as “an extraordinary taxonomy of fountain drinks, color-coded according toRead More →
There is an excellent article in this week’s New York Times, Turning to Jerks to Restore Allure of Soda Fountains,describing a potential trend in the return of the soda fountain. Unlike most similar articles, rather than bemoan the end of the past, or offer a nostalgic look back, it takesRead More →
William B. Keller, the focus of one chapter in my book, single handedly organized the fledgling bottling industry, which included seltzer bottlers, over 130 years ago. That’s him in the upper left. To MY right is his great-great-granddaughter, who just HAPPENED to be meeting her early-morning biking group right outsideRead More →
Amanda at food52 printed this lovely collection of creative seltzer drinks for the warm summer days ahead. Check them out here.Read More →