donmattingly

Thanks for the links and the welcome :) Interesting, is Deleware only two hours from NYC? Guess its been a while since I travelled out of the city.. I will place it on my list though, thanks :) That's not too far at all actualy, thanks for the lead! Touche! Alas, perhaps "I'll" come back and manage the yanks to winning glory sometime soon.. You know "I" will.. Thanks for the tip, I was uninspired upon several forays into the venue.. I could never get myself to go through with it there.. And on those other places, no thoughts as of yet, but thanks for throwing another handful of names on my list.. I will be headed to those places right quick for tastings :) And a final thank you to you for that lead. Next time I head out to the Library I'll stop at Tom's..

I will try to make this post, my first since migrating from Chowhound, terse. I want to share with folks what I believe is another sad chapter in history that will matter to any classic food lover. I speak of the death of the classic fountain malted milkshake. For the purposes of this discussion, I'll define classic fountain malt to the kind that you could get in the early half of the century at almost any pharmacy in America. The kind that included fresh powdered malt, not malt syrup. I'm talking about the kind of malted shake that would be made in a tin, poured into a glass, and then which would be accompanied by the tin to your left, which held nearly another entire glass' worth of shake. That's the kind of malted milkshake I'm talking about. That's what I mean by classic. And it's dead. Or at best has a very faint pulse. Let me say before I make some comments about one place in particular that I’ve tried, I am hoping that folks will come out of the woodwork and prove me wrong. Tell me where the malts are hiding. If I found even 3 worthy venues in addition to the *one* I mention below, I will have had my faith reinvigorated. Let's begin: Bespeckled Trout, 422 Hudson St. Milkshake ~3-4$ Egg Cream ~$2 (prices are estimates, I am fuzzy on the details) You may have heard about this place from television or an article. I became aware of it from a friend who was reading Chowhound. I recently went to the trout, after doing an errand on Wall St., my wife and I trekked by foot to this small and orderly ice-cream shop that subtly doubles as an antique store and candy stand specializing in classic Americana and the old fashioned candies that one might know from their childhood, or more likely from the movies if your as young as I am. The Trout is small, with the candy and antiques crammed into a square storefront on a quiet part of Hudson. You may at times be confused as to what is candy and what is say, a bag of polished rocks or marbles. To the point, the place is apparently run by a fella who makes some of the candy himself. He was absent the day we went, but his mother stood in place and she handled the job with aplomb. Overall the shakes were several orders of magnitude better than any place I have sampled in New York City in the last 7 years, and in the top 10 in my lifetime. However, it was not in the top 2. I am looking forward to going back when the son is there, I suspect he can push the envelope even further than his mom. We ordered two shakes and one egg cream at the Trout. The first shake was a black and white, and the second shake was a black and white. Did you catch that? Let me try again, the first shake was what my father brought me up on, his definition of a black and white being chocolate ice cream, vanilla syrup and malt powder.. not too thick, but not milky either. I have always cherished this as the "real" black and white, my father having been born in 1938, I figured he has the scoop on things. Everyone else always seemed to think that a black and white was vanilla ice cream, chocolate syrup and malt. Well to determine how well that tasted, we ordered that as our second "black and white". Incidentally, before doing so another couple came in and ordered a black and white. Sure enough, they meant the vanilla ice cream, choc syrup.. So be it. Let me say, again in my opinion, my father's definition of the B&W is better. The popular rendition suffered from the chocolate syrup dominating the taste of the shake, tasing more like chocolate-milk flavored ice cream. My father's version has a much tighter taste to it. The chocolate of the ice cream is central, but its tempered by the vanilla syrup, which is enhanced by the malt powder. It was sublime at the Trout, and let me tell you, their hand shaven malt grains made the experience as authentic as one will find in the year 2003. The egg cream was also good, although the mom didn't put enough seltzer in it and the seltzer wasn't cold enough to offset the sweetness of the syrup. But it was still very good. In my opinion, the old Excelsior Hotel on the upper west side, still there, but no longer sporting that excellent coffee shop at its floor level, well they made an even better egg cream.. Nonetheless, let me assure you, the Trout has come as close as one can expect to delivering the goods on a classic fountain shake. Served in a glass, alongside its tin, you're home free. Moreover, no offense the youthful workforce of our nation, but I'd much rather a man or woman over the age of 40 be making my malted shake, because they have some concept of what malt is.. They have some recollection of what these great treats once were commonplace. They are waning, get them while you can. Next time I will give my opinion on several other venues, but here are some previews of my overall impressions: Ellen’s Stardust (once great, no longer), The Brooklyn Ice Cream Factory (horrid milkshake at $6, no syrup, no malt, they use a blender), Uncle Louie G’s in Brooklyn (best “modern” shake I’ve found), the Milk Shake place on St. Marks (haven’t been yet, very skeptical), Cooper Sq. Diner (no good since the renovation and move across the St. several years ago)..