An egg cream is a soda-fountain drink of cold milk, seltzer and chocolate (or vanilla) syrup, despite containing neither egg nor cream. A New York City deli-counter classic since the 1890s.

Louis Auster, a Lower East Side candy-shop owner, claimed the egg cream's invention in the 1890s, using his own chocolate syrup at his Stanton Street shop. Brooklyn's Fox's u-bet syrup, manufactured in Brownsville since 1900, became the editorial standard: a thin, dark, glossy chocolate that emulsifies cleanly with cold whole milk. The name's origin is debated (Yiddish 'echt keem,' real cream; phonetic drift from 'egg cream' as a fancy term for soda-fountain richness; or a working-class joke). What is not debated: the cold-pour technique, milk first, then seltzer hard from the siphon, then syrup whisked in last, makes the foamy white head that signals correctness.

3 editor picks for Egg cream in New York City, ranked by editorial score. All New York City signature dishes · Egg cream across every city.