A classic American drink, the egg cream is a true culinary invention of New York City, up there with chicken and waffles, the Waldorf salad, and baked Alaska to name a few. It was also deemed “Brooklyn’s official elixir since the 1920s” by former Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz 21 years ago.
Following the end of World War II before drive-thrus and bottled sodas, an estimated 125,000 soda fountains served up smiles and sweets inside pharmacies operating on main streets across the U.S. Now, these full-service culinary destinations are few and far between, especially in the five boroughs, since fountains and ice cream parlors like Gem Spa in Manhattan’s East Village and Anopoli and Hinsch in Bay Ridge have closed. (Reporter’s note: Hinsch was called Reichert’s Tea Room before becoming Hinsch in 1948; was purchased in 2013, reopening as Mike’s Hinsch; and reopened in 2015 as a Stewart’s Shops franchise.)
Some local eateries, however, have made it their mission to prevent the egg cream and the art of “making a good one” from fizzing out. Coupled with a dash of New York City spunk and determination, you could say that their recipe for success can be found in a Libbey bell glass with three ingredients: milk, seltzer, and flavored syrup.
A “Point of Pride”
A mom-and-pop staple in Greenpoint since 1954, Peter Pan Donut & Pastry Shop is known for its donuts and teal-and-pink employee uniform. But a frothy egg cream is just as popular as a hot cup of coffee, according to manager Demetri Siafakas.
“It’s truly an old-school thing that really ebbs and flows with time, but I think it’s always present in some capacity,” he said. “I would say it’s having sort of a resurgence. I feel like I make more egg creams now than I do milkshakes sometimes.”
“Every time I forget to order seltzer I’m in big trouble because I know I’m going to have five or six egg creams [ordered] that day at least,” he said with a laugh.
Since Demetri’s parents purchased the space from its original owners in the early 1990s, the menu has not only expanded to include more donut flavors and toppings (with the original base recipe) and seasonal treats, but has kept egg creams. “I consider it a staple of the shop,” Siafakas said. “It’s a point of pride for us to make an egg cream because Peter Pan’s is supposed to be like an old-school Brooklyn place.”
Similarly, Brooklyn Farmacy & Soda Fountain in Carroll Gardens makes customers feel like they’ve stepped into another century while surrounded by tin ceilings, 100-year-old penny tile floors, and wooden cabinetry filled with ephemera dating back to 1870—all original since the space was once a thriving neighborhood pharmacy, Longo’s Drugs.
Gia Giasullo and Peter Freeman, the sibling co-founders of Brooklyn Farmacy, were introduced to the beverage as young children when Freeman’s father would often make them at home. “In 2009, one of the things we talked about was that most kids didn’t even know what an egg cream was,” Giasullo said. “We were sort of sitting on the richness of this historic culinary invention that really had been designated to the bottom of the menu and [one] that most people didn’t know how to make correctly. So, our mission really at the start was kind of very simple: let’s bring the egg cream to the top of the menu, make a really good egg cream, and start to talk about it again.”
“And to respect the history and process,” Freeman added. “The egg cream is still here and still on the top of our menu, and we’re still happy to make them for people that grew up drinking them and to make them for people who have never tried one.”
Rumor Has It…
There are different stories out there as to where the egg cream was invented (Brooklyn or Manhattan’s Lower East Side) and why the egg cream goes by the name when the beverage contains neither eggs nor cream. Some say it’s Brooklyneese for “a cream” or a variation of the Yiddish word, “echt keem.” Others say it was a mistaken translation of “chocolat et crème,” a Parisian drink made with chocolate that was requested by actor Boris Thomashefsky in lower Manhattan. Even Freeman and the Siafakas family have their own theories.
“[In the] late 1800s, soda fountains on the Lower East Side were selling chocolate sodas and, on a parallel track, you had dairy products being brought into the city, probably first going to the people that paid the best, probably in the upper part of the city. So, if you think about it, by the time it got down to the Lower East Side, if at all, you’d be lucky if the milk wasn’t spoiled or warm. And then we have the chicken … eggs were easy to come by and plentiful. If you take an egg white and whip it with sugar, you get like a merengue that’s actually shelf-stable at room temperature for at least a full day. So, you take this chocolate soda, this nice little sugary egg white mix, dollop it on top, and it’s beautiful. You have a sweet egg cream,” Freeman speculated. “In people’s minds, they’re thinking cream, they’re thinking, ‘Oh, this is luxurious. This is something I want to try.’”
“I was told that egg creams are named for the eggshell shine … that the foam’s not good unless it has that [color] shine,” said Peter, Demetri’s brother who also works at Peter Pan’s.
“This is probably one of those things [to which] there’s no answer or you’re never going to find the true answer,” Demetri commented.
It Hits the Spot
So, if you’re in the mood for a snack to go with your egg cream, what could you get?
“Old timers will oftentimes ask for a pretzel rod with their egg cream,” said Giasullo, who dropped a rod into a chocolate egg cream that she prepared for the RHSR on a muggy Friday morning. “It’s the perfect combo of sweet and salty.”
“It’s pretty classic,” Freeman added.
“If you get a chocolate [egg cream], you have to go with a nice sour cream cake donut or a vanilla-frosted sprinkle donut,” Demetri recommended while working on a busy Monday afternoon. “Or if you get a vanilla [egg cream], which a lot of people order here, a chocolate cake donut or a strawberry-frosted sprinkle donut goes great.”
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