Shakes and Floats

Summer is the season of the milkshake, the root beer float, and anything else fizzy, creamy, and quenching. 25 Degrees and Chuck’s: A Kerry Simon Kitchen are both doling out grown-up – spiked – cooling sweets this season, which do double-duty as intoxicating desserts and beverages.

Spiked milkshakes are a perpetual fixture at 25 Degrees, a River North restaurant best known for its beefy burger supremacy. But the apex of summer is when gulping down a Guinness milkshake seems most apropos. Flavors include a Cinnashake made with Fireball, Rumchata, graham crackers, and vanilla ice cream; a Turkish Latte shake made with Bailey’s, Trader Vic’s liqueur, iced espresso, coffee ice cream, and cardamom; a Bananas Foster shake with Sailor Jerry rum, banana butterscotch, vanilla ice cream, and Myer’s rum floater; a NOLA shake spiked with Southern Comfort, praline liquor, butter pecan ice cream, and toasted pecans; and the aforementioned Guinness tipple with beer, chocolate sauce, and vanilla ice cream.

Over at Chuck’s: A Kerry Simon Kitchen, a cocktail float takes center stage on the summertime dessert menu. The restaurant is the handiwork of celebrity chef Kerry Simon, a Chicago native who has hit it big in Las Vegas. His calling card is contemporary American fare, an ethos perfectly personified by his salacious new adult float. It’s made with Not Your Father’s Root Beer from local Small Town Brewery, heaped with French vanilla ice cream, whipped cream, and sprinkles.

25 Degrees
736 N. Clark Street, Chicago
(312) 943-9700
Website

Chuck’s: A Kerry Simon Kitchen
224 N. Michigan Avenue, Chicago
(312) 334-6700
Website