Enjoy cool, fizzy fun on National Root Beer Float Day

Remember the simple pleasures of a root-beer float on a hot summer day? The way the ice cream melted to yield a creamy body and a foamy head, both of which contrasted so nicely with the restrained sweetness of the fizzy soft drink? If you do, perhaps you'd like to celebrate National Root Beer Float Day, which is Today.

You can get a root-beer float in a lot of places in Las Vegas, since just about every ice-cream shop in town makes them, but few elevate them to art like the folks at Shake Shack at New York-New York. The Shake Shack float starts with draft root beer from Abita Brewing Co., a Louisiana firm that's been making all sorts of brews for almost 30 years, and whose root beer contains spring water, local herbs, vanilla and cane sugar. Then Shake Shack adds a scoop of frozen custard, spun in-house using real sugar and milk from dairy farmers who pledge not to use artificial growth hormones.

It's $5.25.

Contact Heidi Knapp Rinella at Hrinella@reviewjournal.com. Find more of her stories at reviewjournal.com and bestoflasvegas.com and follow @HKRinella on Twitter.