More than 600 fizz-aficionados flocked to Industry City on Sunday for SeltzerFest 2025.
The sold-out event, which celebrated seltzer culture, featured the return of the Golden Siphon to New York City, with The Brooklyn Farmacy of Carroll Gardens taking home the top prize in the National Egg Cream Invitational.
“We were overwhelmed by today’s turn-out and the level of creativity brought to the event by all of the contestants as well as the dozens of exhibitors throughout the room,” said Barry Joseph, founding director of the Brooklyn Seltzer Museum. “People traveled from far and wide to experience today’s effervescent activities and they filled the room with so much joy.”
The festival also included the inaugural SeltzerFest Seltzer Awards, celebrating the best in bubbly, and a full slate of interactive events and vendor booths.
Hosted by the Brooklyn Seltzer Museum, a nonprofit focused on preserving and promoting seltzer’s rich history, SeltzerFest 2025 featured an immersive experience with a variety of vendors, interactive booths and competitive events.
The day kicked off with an “Opening Spritz,” a tribute to the tradition popularized by the Three Stooges. Attendees then participated in “Fizzing into the Future–The Next Generation of Jewish Bubbly,” a panel discussion and live demonstration on the evolution of carbonated Jewish beverages, presented by The Neighborhood: An Urban Center for Jewish Life.
The event also saw the inaugural Spirit of Eli Award, named after Eli Miller, the “sultan of seltzer,” presented to distinguished seltzer delivery man Walter Backerman. The day’s programming concluded with a performance of live Yiddish seltzer-themed Klezmer music, titled “The Seltzer Klezmer Spritz-tacular,” by The Workers Circle.
But the return of the Golden Siphon to Brooklyn was the cream of the crop — and a moment of pride — for the local seltzer community, reflecting the city’s historic roots in the effervescent egg cream. Last year’s award went to Philadelphia’s Franklin Fountain.
Though its origins are debated, many believe the egg cream was invented in the Jewish immigrant neighborhoods of Brooklyn in the early 1900s.
Housed in a restored 1920s apothecary in Carroll Gardens, Brooklyn Farmacy is a contemporary soda fountain, ice cream shop and neighborhood staple.
“When we opened in 2010, it was our mission to bring this delicious, iconic New York drink back to the top of the menu,” Brooklyn Farmacy wrote in a social media post on March 15 — National Egg Cream Day. “Mission accomplished!”
This year’s Egg Cream Invitational was sponsored by Fox’s U-bet.
