"But the truest dirty soda experience in these parts can be found in Clinton, where last year Lauren Nanof and her husband, Chris, opened The Fountain. It is a new-school old-school soda fountain, ice cream parlor, and candy shop on High Street, where its mint green exterior, retro hanging sign, and pink sidewalk tables feel like they always should have been here.

“I grew up in Clinton, I went to schools in Clinton, and I always had this idea of a little soda shop in our town, a place people could gather,” Nanof says. She was thinking of milkshakes and floats and the like. Then came dirty soda. She and Chris tried making their own. They loved it. She researched and realized there was nothing like it around. There’s a Dairy Queen in town, and ice cream stand standouts like Rota Spring Farm and Kimball Farm in the area. Dirty soda was a niche, albeit a risk: Did enough people know what it was?

First they opened the candy shop. In designing The Fountain, Nanof made the most of her skills from her previous business, specializing in cabinet finishing and interior painting. The result is a candy-colored charmer, with striped walls, ice cream paraphernalia, neon signs, and a Barbie-pink payphone small children stare at with confusion. The soda and ice cream side of the business opened in October, coinciding nicely with “Secret Lives of Mormon Wives” streaming fervor. There is also a mobile soda cart Nanof and crew bring to events.

“I knew it was going to be good to introduce people to dirty soda, but I never realized what a community aspect it would bring,” Nanof says. “It’s so many people’s favorite place to come. We’re on a bus stop, so we get flooded after school with people coming in to sit. Grandparents or parents bring kids. It’s so nice to see people sit down and share a drink together.” The Fountain hosts all kinds of events, from music and movie Mondays with themed menus to community fund-raisers. When they post a drink on social media, everyone comes in and orders it." 

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