Spring Grove Soda: 100 Favorite Dishes

As a countdown to the Best of the Twin Cities 2010, coming this spring, The Hot Dish is serving up a hundred of our favorite local dishes. Send your own nominations to hotdish@citypages.com.

No. 47: Spring Grove Soda
The dentist just filled a cavity and what do you do to celebrate? Crack open a bottle of Spring Grove Soda, courtesy of the state's only soft drink maker. For all the talk of eating local, little lip has been given to drinking local, which makes a lot of sense when you consider that you're basically shipping around a lot of heavy water, a resource that's not unique to one particular region.

Spring Grove is our little soda maker that could: 100 years in the business of making gumdrop-colored bevvies sweetened the old-fashioned way, with pure cane sugar. Spring Grove upgraded from its signature squat bottles a few years ago, but the production facility is a tiny building in the southeast corner of the state, and the labels still read "Mange Tusen Takk," or "many thousand thanks" in Norwegian. True to Spring Grove's community-minded sensibilities, the staff recently launched a Halloween tradition of transforming the plant into a "Haunted Pop Factory." Some of Spring Grove's rainbow of flavors are overly sweet and undercarbonated for those who really like their soda to bite and crackle, but you can't go wrong with the classic cream soda or the hard-to-find lemon sour.

Spring Grove's distribution is generally within 100 miles of its production facility, but the sodas may be found in the Twin Cities at Grass Roots Gourmet, 920 E. Lake S. (Midtown Global Market), Mpls., 612-871-6947 and Surdyk's (lemon sour only), 303 East Hennepin Ave., Minneapolis, 612-379-3232.

Hungry for more? The dishes in our countdown thus far are linked below:

No. 100: Volcano Salad at Tiger Sushi
No. 99: Eclair at Butter
No. 98: Moussaka at Gardens of Salonica
No. 97: "Flappers" at Colossal Cafe
No. 96: Bento Box at Obento-Ya
No. 95: Sausage, salami, onion, and green olive pizza at Black Sheep
No. 94: Crab Cake at the Kitchen
No. 93: Passion fruit cake at Pardon My French
No. 92: Kafé 421 Signature Dips
No. 91: Lutefisk at Landmarc Grill
No. 90: May Day Cafe Croissant
No. 89: Dowjic at Babani's
No. 88: Osso Bucco at the Modern Cafe
No. 87: Chef Shack Hot Dog
No. 86: Adult Mac & Cheese at Good Day Cafe
No. 85: Ropa Vieja at Victor's
No. 84: French Toast of the Dead at Chino Latino
No. 83: Uni at Origami
No. 82: Bagel at Common Roots
No. 81: Jasmine Deli's bánh mì
No. 80: Pho 79's bò cuốn lá nho
No. 79: Sweets Bakeshop's Kettlecorn Cupcake
No. 78: D'Amico Kitchen's Chicory Salad
No. 77: Be'wiched Deli pastrami sandwich
No. 76: La Grassa's lima bean appetizer
No. 75: Bulldog NE Tater Tots
No. 74: Pop's Swedish Meatballs
No. 73: Hot Plate's Caramel Apple French Toast
No. 72: Grand Cafe's Ham and Cheese
No. 71: Galactic Pizza's Thailander
No. 70: Jackson's milk chocolate gelato
No. 69: Patrick's Bakery and Cafe's tiramisu
No. 68: Punch's Chopped Italian Salad
No. 67: Red Stag's Smelt Fries
No. 66: Mancini's Grilled Garlic Bread
No. 65: Uptown Bulldog's Chicago Dog
No. 64: Crema Cafe's Sorbet Spritzer
No. 63: Matt's Bar Jucy Lucy
No. 62: Baker's Wife Doughnut
No. 61: Bar Abilene Guacamole
No. 60: St. Paul Cheese Shop Cheesemonger
No. 59: Fasika Vegi Sampler
No. 58: Sen Yai Sen Lek Lettuce Wrap
No. 57: Saffron Mini Lamb BLT
No. 56: Dominguez Family Restaurant Green Salsa
No. 55: D'Amico Bottomless Glass of Wine
No. 54: Pizza Luce Spinach Salad
No. 53: Barbette's Mussels
No. 52: New Scenic Cafe's Triple Berry Pie
No. 51: Birchwood Cafe's Cobbler
No: 50: Tanpopo's Mackerel Teishoku
No. 49: Town Talk Diner's Frickles
No. 48 La Sirena Gorda Ceviche