The Snack: Brooklyn Farmacy and Soda Fountain

FOX5NY (WNYW-TV) - Stepping into Brooklyn Farmacy and Soda Fountain on Henry Street in Carroll Gardens, is like stepping back in time.

"this really is a historical place. We always joke, it looks old, because it is!"

Peter Freeman and his sister Gia opened the throwback spot in 2010, in a building that was once a pharmacy 100 years ago.
"This really is a historical place. We always joke; it looks old, because it is!" Peter said. “Back in the late teens early 20s, it was a place called Longo's Pharmacy, neighborhood pharmacy."

According to Peter, the place was originally Longo's Pharmacy until the late 60s, then the son of the owner got caught selling guns out of the back.

“The place was just filled with drugs and medicines and tools and all sorts of stuff from the last 120 years" Peter explained as he showed us a bottle with the word flatulence. “It says flatulence, but it doesn't tell you if it takes care of it, or gives you it."

Their egg cream is a throwback in of itself.

“My dad taught me about egg creams when i was six years old. He brought me to ray's in manhattan. He said son, this is an egg cream. Right, this is good. And that stuck with me til now. And if those places don't exist, then you can't have those experiences."

“To make it, is simple” Peter said. “Three ingredients: whole milk, seltzer and syrup. First thing we do is start with whole milk, then the seltzer right in, almost to the top, and the syrup, you don't want to over stir it - you don't  want to beat all the seltzer out of it and your egg cream is good to drink.

And after the egg cream, hopefully you'll have room for a homemade sundae; The Mr. Potato Head.
“Vanilla ice cream, all the ice cream is made in the Hudson Valley in Kingston” Peter said. “With milk from happy cows."

Then Peter adds North Fork potato chips, some homemade peanut butter, caramel sauce…and whipped cream.

And regarding their soda fountain, Peter says it’s an enjoyable experience, “but it's also an experience you can connect with. It's generational. The soda fountain is in our blood. You can have someone born and raised on this block sipping an egg cream next to somebody that moved in last month."

A delightful way to honor the past, while celebrating the future.