Root Beer Floats Are Go-To Treats on National Ice Cream Day!

Kirsten Gilliam
Root Beer Floats Are Go-To Treats on National Ice Cream Day!

Houston eateries are, ahem, rooting for an old-fashioned take on cool treats this National Ice Cream Day, which is Sunday, July 19!


FM Kitchen & Bar on Shepherd — a popular neighborhood bar and restaurant known for cool cocktails, craft beers, burgers, and locally sourced comfort food — is pitching root beer floats made with Houston-made Saint Arnold’s Root Beer. The frothy, ice-creamy beverage, also known as a Brown Cow or Black Cow, can be made not only with the local brewery’s bubbly beverage, but also Mexican Coco-Cola and Mexican Fanta. Available for both dine-in and curbside, the floats go for $6 each.

Of course, the traditional Texas favorite float also remains on the menu at The Burger Joint, Fat Cat Creamery and Good Dog locations, all of which also source St. Arnold’s root beer.

At the same time, Ariana Quant, head pastry chef of Uchi parent company Hai Hospitality, has an idea for a make-it-yourself new spin on root beer floats — root beer granita. The recipe is simple. First make a simple syrup by bringing a quarter cup each of sugar and water to a boil and letting it cool slightly before adding three 12-ounce bottles of root beer. (We’re recommending St. Arnold’s naturally.) Then pour it into a glass pan, freeze it and use a fork to scrape it into little crystals. Serve it topped with vanilla ice cream and a drizzle of chocolate sauce.

At the restaurant, Uchi is featuring a decidedly fancier affair — coconut-lychee sorbet — to mark National Ice Cream Day. The frozen confection will be accompanied with blueberries pickled in Calamansi vinegar.

AT TOP: FM Kitchen & Bar

Food
Top Attorney Lauren Varnado Says Networking Is Key: ‘Relationships Are Everything’
How did you get to where you are today? It takes a village. I was fortunate enough to have great mentors and individuals who instilled confidence in me. I think that when you face a challenge or an obstacle, you are able to overcome and make things happen. You can continue moving forward, more resilient over time.
Keep Reading Show less

'Is that how you treat your house guest'

ARTIST KAIMA MARIE’S solo exhibit For the record (which opens today at Art Is Bond) invites the viewer into a multiverse of beloved Houston landmarks, presented in dizzying Cubist perspectives. There are ornate interior spaces filled with paintings, books and records — all stuff we use to document and preserve personal, family and collective histories; and human figures, including members of Marie’s family, whose presence adds yet another quizzical layer to these already densely packed works. This isn’t art you look at for 15-30 seconds before moving on to the next piece; there’s a real pleasure in being pulled into these large-scale photo collages, which Marie describes as “puzzles without a reference image.”

Keep Reading Show less
Art + Entertainment

Beetlejuice Goes Hawaiian cocktail

SPOOKY SEASON IS starting early this year with the release of the Beetlejuice sequel in theaters on Friday. Houston cocktail bar and pizza joint Betelgeuse Betelgeuse is celebrating the film with two weekends of events and specials.

Keep Reading Show less
Food