Maturity isn't a reason to scorn the lowbrow treats we loved as children; it might just call for revamped versions.
That's why we visited five area restaurants to check out their takes on childhood classics like root beer floats, Ding Dong-style snack cakes and doughnut holes.
Zeppoles ($8)
• Inspiration: Doughnut holes, the bite-sized balls that are reportedly left over while making doughnuts.• The take: Lounge on 20 turns up the down-home confection with balls of cornmeal dough, still warm from the fryer, and rolled lightly in sugar. They're served atop a drizzle of exuberant housemade raspberry purée and alongside a ramekin of flavorful corn custard that could be dessert on its own.
• The execution: More savory than sweet, this dessert makes an exception to the requisite sharing rule.
• Where to get it: Lounge on 20, 1050 20th St., Sacramento, (916) 443-6620.
Valrhona Ding Dong ($8)
• Inspiration: Hostess Ding Dong, the chocolate hockey puck- looking classic with creme filling.• The take: Mulvaney's Building & Loan makes a Valrhona chocolate version with the recipes for devil's food cake, chocolate mousse and chocolate glaze borrowed from culinary chums. It's served atop a spread of crème anglaise and raspberry coulis, and finished with three of the signature seven squiggles that adorn a Hostess cupcake.
• The execution: Ultrarich chocolate decadence that requires a large glass of milk.
• Where to get it: Mulvaney's Building & Loan, 1215 19th St., Sacramento, (916) 441-6022.
S'mores pie ($7)
• Inspiration: S'mores, the traditional campfire treat of toasted marshmallow, melting chocolate and graham crackers.• The take: Roxy Restaurant and Bar serves a pie version with a homemade graham cracker crust laden with pockets of chocolate and fluffy peaks of toasted marshmallow meringue. Served on a plate swirled with chocolate and powdered sugar, each piece is popped into the oven upon order and finished with a torch to emulate that just-out-of-the-fire feel.
• The execution: So über-marshmallowy, you want more but can only say "s'more."
• Where to get it: Roxy Restaurant and Bar, 2381 Fair Oaks Blvd., Sacramento, (916) 489-2000.
Root beer float ($8.50)
• Inspiration: Root beer float, the treat of ice cream submerged in sassafras-flavored soda. The name comes from the ice cream floating amid the carbonated bubbles.• The take: Tuli Bistro classes up the float by presenting root beer three ways – a syrupy root beer reduction, root beer granita-style shaved ice and root beer caramel sauce – all served in a pilsner glass with vanilla bean ice cream from Vic's and Sprecher root beer.
• The execution: A straw doesn't do this dessert justice. You need a spoon to shovel in the varied root beer flavors.
• Where to get it: Tuli Bistro, 2031 S St., Sacramento, (916) 451-8854.
Chocolate chip pizza ($5.95)
• Inspiration: The Toll House cookie, invented in 1937 by Ruth Wakefield, who ran the Toll House Inn in Whitman, Mass. Wakefield was making her Butter Drop Do cookies and substituted pieces of a semisweet chocolate bar for baker's chocolate to create a classic.• The take: At Chicago Fire Pizza, six par-baked chocolate chip cookies are stuffed into a 6-inch deep-dish pizza pan, topped with vanilla ice cream and laden with whipped cream. A maraschino cherry finishes off the dessert.
• The execution: Warm and doughy cookies offset the cold vanilla ice cream.
• Where to get it: 2416 J St., Sacramento, (916) 443-0440; or 614 Sutter St., Folsom, (916) 353-0140.
Call The Bee's Gina Kim, (916) 321-1228.
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