White Rose Cream Soda By Galco's Soda Pop Stop

Our knowledge of Los Angeles' beverage history tends heavily toward the adult variety.

But thanks to Galco's Soda Pop Stop, we're balancing our stories about yesteryear's Downtown breweries and vineyards–and silver-screen stars making bathtub gin–with the all-ages tale of the shop's limited-edition White Rose Cream Soda ($2).

The soda's name comes from the defunct White Rose Springs Water Co., a Highland Park bottling company that utilized a now-capped spring just off Figueroa for nearly 60 years. The cane-syrup-sweetened soda is far from cloying, its fizz and vanilla flavor speaking of an era of soda counters and drive-in theaters. This is delicious nostalgia.

Produced for Galco's by Pennsylvania's Natrona Bottling Company, White Rose is the first in a series of sodas inspired by local history, aptly named Highland Park's Own.

In the spirit of celebrating and preserving local history, sales of the cream soda will support the reopening of the Southwestern Museum, a cause Galco's itself contributed to with its recent soda-tasting event. Closed bottling companies and closed museums may seem disparate, but these two are connected through geography: White Rose Springs was located at the foot of the hill where the museum currently stands.

Galco's Soda Pop Stop, 5702 York Blvd., Highland Park; 323-255-7115 or sodapopstop.com