Buzz Fizz
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Why are Virginians once more converging on barstools and huddling over effervescent concoctions inspired by the classic soda fountain?
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Here: Pop’s patrons enjoying some after-school refreshments. Opposite page: Dreamsicle Float at Artfully Chocolate.
Photography by Jeff Greenough virginia living
94
june 2013
On a recent Saturday stroll through Alexandria’s Del Ray neighborhood, I found myself standing in front of Artfully Chocolate Food & Fizz Bar. It had been hot, and nothing sounded better to me at that moment than an old-fashioned soda. The window sign advertising the bubbly delights took me back to my childhood in Indiana where, every spring, my grandmother and I would go to Zaharakos Ice Cream Parlor in Columbus. I remembered sipping my favorite cinnamon soda there—a mixture of cinnamon syrup, soda water, ice cream and whipped cream—and delighting in the pink foam that overflowed the glass like a science-fair volcano. I’ll never forget the glint of the cool marble counter and the shiny chrome stools and reveling in the feeling that I’d stepped back in time. Nostalgia is hot these days. To the television shows like “Mad Men” and “Downton Abbey,” and the popularity of vintage clothing, allow me to add one more nostalgic trend: the resurgence of the old-fashioned soda fountain. Bubbly water has always had appeal, thanks to its ability to settle the stomach, alleviate indigestion and relieve other common ailments. But it wasn’t until 1832, when British-born inventor John Matthews created a device that could carbonate enough water at one time for a street vendor to have plenty to sell, that soda became something anyone could buy. Soda water had emerged as a natural mixer for medicine in the 1800s. Thus, soda fountains cropped up inside pharmacies. Behind the counter, proprietors began experimenting with flavoring agents they could use to make the taste of medicine more appealing. At that time, it wasn’t uncommon for medicinal sodas to include such substances as tobacco, cocaine, morphine and arsenic, all believed to be harmless, if not actually helpful. In the early 1900s, however, government regulation restricted the types of stimulant substances that could be used in soda fountains. That, coupled with luxury taxes imposed by World War I and the development of bottled soda, forced soda fountain owners to add food to their menus and more ice cream to their sodas to keep business afloat. The soda fountain may have lost its edge but certainly not its
By Sabra Morris june 2013
95
virginia living