Who wants an egg cream?

Morning milk delivery today at Ray's Candy Store, 113 Avenue A...Photo by Peter Brownscombe

An egg cream eggtravaganza

[Via Vanishing New York]

Edible Manhattan's new issue has an entertaining piece on egg creams.... which delves into the secrecy of making these frothy concoctions ... all the East Village egg cream players are interviewed... and only one will tell you how he or she creates an egg cream: Ray!

Alvarez, to his credit, will show you how he makes his egg creams. His transparency is unusual. Most merchants famous for selling this mythical New York elixir are like Anistratov. They put on the Sphinx face when you bring up the drink, keeping mum on how they make them and sometimes even refusing to tell you their own name.

(Thanks to Melanie for first bringing this to our attention!)

Related reading:
The egg cream lives (Jeremiah's Vanishing New York)

From the Department of Good News -- Katz's edition

In an entertaining and thorough post this morning on the state of egg creams, Jeremiah delivers a comforting passage after an interview with Fred Austin, co-owner of Katz's

As for those perennial whispers Katz’s might be vanishing, Fred says, “Every so often I drop the rumor we might be closing, just to boost our business, but I like this place too much. We’ll be around for a long while.”

Meanwhile, here's part of a reel for a documentary this fellow is making about Katz's. Here's more on the project.




And more...

Coming soon to an egg cream near you: hazelnut and cappuccino (but not at Ray's)

[Image by rollingrck via Flickr]

Now Alison Nelson, a lifelong New Yorker and the owner of the Chocolate Bar is trying to revive the egg cream with a bit of a twist. With the opening after a relocation to the East Village, she is introducing egg creams in new flavors: hazelnut, cappuccino and another classic New York flavor, black and white (which is half black chocolate and half white chocolate, like the classic cookie). “I was hoping to reinvigorate the egg cream phenom that existed in the early 1900s maybe every diner and soda shop will have it,” Ms. Nelson said. “I wanted to reintroduce the egg cream to a whole generation of people.” (City Room)

[Updated: At 9:07 p.m., I changed the photo I had up of Gem Spa for Ray's. Much better. Was trying to show a real old-school place that had Egg Creams...]