Not Just For Kids Anymore:

Soda pop. It was inevitable, just as coffee and tea entered the realm of connoisseurs, so, too, has the carbonated beverage. Chicago pastry chef Gale Gand created Gale’s Root Beer, with cinnamon, ginger and vanilla. Naha Restaurant (Chicago, IL: naha-chicago.com) whips up its own cherry coke, with fresh tart cherries, as well as homemade Concord Grape Spritzer and Birch Bark Beer. Backstreet Café is using peach, pineapple and blueberry gastrique to make its own sodas. At Mizuna (Denver, CO; mizunadenver.com), things go one step further, with a homemade tonic. Not all grownups sodas are for teetotalers, either. Looking for a kick? Try the 80-proof Root (artintheage.com/spirits-aita), a birch bark beverage that tastes nothing like A&W.