RESTAURANT REVIEW : Pasadena’s Soda Jerks: All the Right, Old-Time Trappings

Living in the Midwest, I grew terribly fond of drugstore soda fountains. A ham salad sandwich and a chocolate malt was my perfect lunch, although sometimes I’d opt for tomato soup from the can and a Dusty Miller (a chocolate sundae with malt powder). Soda fountains are a glorious American institution, and I’m always happier when I know one is within reasonable driving distance.

My new favorite is the 6-month-old Soda Jerks on Fair Oaks in Pasadena. A soda fountain sans drugstore, Soda Jerks is a large brick-walled, open-truss hall with a great long soda fountain fabricated from two antique counters imported from Oklahoma City and Pennsylvania. The back bars have lovely stained glass, granite counters, Tiffany-style lamps and original beveled mirrors now foggy with age. The front counter, where customers lean over lime cokes and banana splits, is milk chocolate-colored marble.

Soda Jerk’s owner, Kevin McCafferty, a third-generation soda jerk, has found a near-museum of original soda fountain equipment like green Hamilton Beach milk shake machines and malt dispensers from the ‘20s. Old soda fountain signage hangs on the walls, and on every ledge sits an assortment of antique potato chip tins and ice cream makers.

Businessmen duck in for lunch in a wooden booth. Ice cream lovers sneak in for a quick cone washed down with a good cup of joe--Soda Jerks shares the premises with Pasadena Roasting Company. Some days--more now that school is out--the place is literally crawling with happy little kids. One day, two kids balance on one bar stool. Kids hang from the brass handrail by the door. There’s even a kid crawling down the narrow ledge fronting the ice cream case. It’s kid heaven.

A minor army of soda jerks works the fountain. Of high school and college age, they are relaxed with the kids and not above a little good-natured banter: “You’re just a jelly bean,” a soda jerk teases a 4-year-old girl.

“You’re a jelly belly,” she replies.

“Well, you’re a silly belly.”

The little girl squeals with pleasure, from the attention, and ice cream-induced bliss.

Soda Jerks, to its credit, doesn’t sell ham salad sandwiches, but it does have terrific Boar’s Head brand hot dogs on steamed buns that come with your choice of sauerkraut, chili, cheese, onions and yellow or an excellent hot deli mustard. I asked a soda jerk if the soup of the day was homemade or from a can. “Oh, we get it in bags from Rykoff,” he said.

But all of the above is nothing but a prelude to the real reason for coming here, which is, of course, the extensive fountain service.

There are phosphates, rickeys, sodas and flavored Cokes. We asked one soda jerk what was the difference between them. In the old days, he replied, when soda fountains were in drugstores, the druggist cut the unremitting sweetness of sodas made from syrups with a dash of bitter phosphoric acid. These days, syrups already have citric acid, which does the same trick, and Soda Jerk’s phosphates actually contain no phosphate: The name is used to differentiate them from ice cream sodas, and brand-name sodas (such as Coke, Dr Pepper, etc.) and from rickeys, drinks that contain fresh lime--a cherry lime rickey, in particular has a great kick, not too much syrup.

Soda Jerks stocks locally made Fosselman’s ice cream--the best around--in a couple dozen flavors. When ordering a malt, I was tempted to ask for extra malt powder (25 cents), but held back and received, indeed, the perfect malt, with just the right yeasty, sandy edge. The menu lists about 15 “Old Pasadena” sundaes, from a classic tin roof (vanilla ice cream, chocolate syrup and Spanish peanuts, plus whipped cream, a cherry and a little American flag) to the unusual and devastatingly good “Tiffany” (one scoop of chocolate topped with good raspberry sauce and one scoop of white chocolate chip bathed in hot fudge, etc). Individualists can opt for the “Doo Dah”--any two flavors, any two toppings. (I recommend banana nut ice cream with hot fudge, or espresso with chocolate sauce.) Homemade berry pie is also first-rate--a la mode, of course.

It may be a long, hot, smoggy summer, so here’s some crucial information:

* Soda Jerks, 219 S. Fair Oaks Ave., Pasadena; (818) 583-8031. Open 7 days for lunch and soda fountain service. No alcohol served. Major credit cards accepted. Lunch for two, food only $7-$22.