Does Canada Dry know about this?

Last night, I had dinner in the southwestern suburbs at a branch of a medium-upscale national chain. The bar was a prominent fixture of the place; therefore I was surprised, when I ordered a ginger ale, to be told they didn't stock this common mixer.

"We can make it for you, though," the waitress said.

"Oh, really?" I said, thinking fondly of ginger syrup and the lovely house-made ginger ales served at some LEYE restaurants.

"We mix Coke and Sprite together," she said. "That's all ginger ale is, Coke and Sprite."

Eeew.

A little Googling tells me this practice is more commonplace than I'd have thought, and that the concept possibly stems from the Seinfeld show -- as a surprising number of stupid ideas in today's society do. But I can't believe the result tastes anything like the products produced by Canada Dry, Schweppes or even Vernor's.

The mix of coke and sprite obviously has little in common with ginger ale other than the color. This practice predates Seinfield by decades. I remember experiencing it as a child as long as 50 years ago in some old school establishments whose bar area mostly catered to the manhattan, martini and cigarette crowd. Laurie's Pizza and Papa Milano's (on Western) come to mind as places that routinely served GA that way.

I can attest to this sad practice as well. As a long-time restaurant and bar person, it is a "last ditch" effort when the ginger ale soda syrup runs dry...or like stevez says - "we don't get many folk in here askin' fer ginger ale."

I have a friend that drinks VO and Ginger Ale. When he orders it in a bar, the first question he asks the server/bartender is "do you have ginger ale?" If they don't say yes fast enough, his next question is "do you make it yourself?" If that answer is yes, he orders VO and 7Up! Because many places pass off the bad soda mix as ginger ale.

I think my ginger ale requests are now going to be phrased, "What kind of ginger ale do you have?" If they respond with a brand name, it seems more likely that they have real ginger ale.

Ginger ale and tonic water are my two main alternatives to Coca-Cola. Places that don't stock tonic try to get by with club soda sometimes, but that switch is just as obvious.

By the way, I note that a few places actually do make their own tonic water, among them Custom House, where I was surprised to see a bartender pour a brown liquid into a glass and then fill it up with club soda. I was prepared to remonstrate, but the taste was just right. When I got home, I did a little Googling on "homemade tonic water" and saw a variety of articles and blogs about making tonic from cinchona bark.

And I really recommend the house-made ginger ales served at Big Bowl, Ben Pao and Wow Bao. Ben Pao also does a frozen, vodka-laced ginger ale.

Custom House
www.customhouse.cc
500 S. Dearborn St., Chicago, 312/523-0200

Big Bowl
www.bigbowl.com
6 E. Cedar St., Chicago, 312/640-8888
60 E. Ohio St., Chicago, 312/951-1888
215 Parkway Drive, Lincolnshire, 847/808-8880
1950 E. Higgins Road, Schaumburg, 847/517-8881

Ben Pao
www.benpao.com
52 W. Illinois St., Chicago, 312/222-1888

Wow Bao
www.wowbao.com
845 N. Michigan Ave., Chicago, 312/642-5888
175 W. Jackson Blvd., Chicago, 312/334-6395
1 W. Wacker Drive, Chicago, 312/658-0305