Photo Credit: Mary Park

Nothing screams summer like a nice frothy mug of root beer and ice cream. Something about the chemical reaction and all those bubbles brings me right back to the summer before 7th grade. Luckily, the restaurants of greater Washington are making sure that on this, the holiest of holidays, we don’t have to forget that summer.

At Jackson 20, you can sample four different frothy drinks of your childhood with the Float Flight. For $9, you’ll get a classic root beer float, a brown cow (root beer and chocolate ice cream), a Pepsi float and a strawberry mist. And at Bourbon Steak, you can really channel your inner child with their root beer float made with sassafras ice cream and root beer sorbet, served with warm chocolate chip walnut cookies.

If you like a little buzz with your float, have no fear, D.C. chefs are here. At Againn, you can try one of their Guinness floats ($9), either served with Madagascar vanilla bean ice cream or stout ice cream. Or head over to Rustico, where you can get a float made of raspberry framboise beer and peach ice cream.

And if you need a little more out of your root beer float, try out the house-made root beer marshmallows at Buzz Bakery. Add on one of their root beer floats if you’re truly daring and sugar dependent. Or if you’re like me and love a deal, head to Acadiana at any point today and you can try one of their Abita (on draught!) root beer floats for only two bucks. Whitlows will also be running a special on their Old Dominion root beer floats ($2.25), so head to Arlington and spread the holiday cheer.

It’s enough to make me feel like a girl of twelve again…

Ashley Messick

Ashley is a born and bred Washingtonian who left for college but came running back to the District as fast as her little legs could carry her. By day she is a Capitol Hill brat, but by night she is a lean, mean, eating machine. It’s her goal in life to steal Anthony Bourdain’s job…by whatever means necessary. Contact her at Ashley (at) welovedc (dot) com or follow her on Twitter.