I call it the Milkshake Renaissance. No, they never really went away. Milkshakes were always there – at diners, soft-serve stands, and ice cream parlors – but now they’re enjoying a new life for a new audience. Not just milk and ice cream whirled up to frosty, flavorful perfection, the shakes making news these days are fabulous creations in imaginative flavors piled high with confections.

If you’ll let me, I’ll carry my analogy further and nominate New York City restaurateur Danny Meyer as the Cosimo de Medici of this Renaissance. The Shake Shack, Meyer’s fabulously successful chain of fast-service, high-end hamburger restaurants, put shakes front and center in the world of ever-changing food fashions.

Old school vanilla and chocolate at the Shake Shack

Old school vanilla and chocolate at the Shake Shack

Shake Shack milkshakes are not the highly decorated dessert-like shakes that are making waves. They’re hand-spun old-school style and come in (more or less) traditional flavors. What Meyer did, though, is to put the shakes, along with floats and concretes (more on those later) front and center both on the sign out front and on the menu, restoring the milkshake to its rightful place as an equal partner with the hamburger.

This all comes up because of a dinner I had at Johnny Utah’s in SoNo. With its long bar, mechanical bull, and brash music, it’s clearly aimed at a younger crowd, but I’d been invited to try their $5.00 burgers and innovative milkshakes.

I was glad I went.

Philly Egg Rolls

Philly Egg Rolls

Yes, the space is big, the music loud, and I didn’t want anything to do with that bucking bull, but the crispy, crunchy bar food was just what it should be. Philly Egg Rolls were a riff on cheese steak wrapped up and fried with a BBQ sauce dip. Crispy fried pickles were cranked up with chipotle dipping sauce. Meaty wings were done Honey-Guinness, buffalo (any heat level from mild to please stop), and new to me, peanut butter and jelly with marshmallow fluff dip – you’ve got to give them a try.

Burger with cheddar, mushrooms, and roasted peppers on a brioche bun.A basic burger on a good brioche roll at a more than fair price can be customized with over 20 add-ons and condiments. Predictably good fries and onion rings are just the tip of the sides iceberg.

Chocolate peanut butter shake

Chocolate peanut butter shake

Which brings me to the milkshakes. They’re presented as dessert in generous, candied, garnished, and over the top delightfulness. Flavors currently in rotation include: Chocolate Peanut Butter with a Hershey’s candy bar, Reese’s cups, and roasted marshmallows; Cookies and Cream with Oreos, and an Oreo ice cream sandwich; Cherry Bomb with Skittles and a cherry Pop Tart; and Blueberry Muffin, with muffin bits and vanilla frosting.

All this too much for your sweet tooth? Try the more savory Vanilla Bacon shake with bits of bacon, bacon slices, and fries.

Underneath all the glitz and garnish there’s actually a milk shake you can sip through a straw while you munch on the garnish. Order any shake and I guarantee everyone will say, “wow!” (or something even more exclamatory and emphatic). They’re lots of fun, taste great, and at ten bucks, a dessert bargain even if you just take a picture and eat the goodies.

Shake Shack menu

Shake Shack menu

Over the top shakes are popping up all over and redefining the name. But if you are more of a traditionalist, the mike shakes you’ve always known are still around. The ones at the Shake Shake (Westport and around the world) come in vanilla, chocolate, strawberry, salted caramel and coffee. At Sweet Ashley’s (Norwalk) you can get a shake with just about any of their handmade flavors. Shake fans I know also recommend Scoops and Heibeck’s in Wilton. Any roadside diner worthy of the name should have one of those Waring shake spinners, the ones where the stainless steel container is slipped up over the shaft, churning up the shake with a high pitched whine.

Speaking of those milk shake spinners, we wouldn’t have McDonald’s restaurants around the world without them. Ray Kroc, a spinner salesman, was impressed with how many the McDonald brothers purchased for their California restaurants. After studying their operation, Kroc began to franchise restaurants, then bought the company. The rest is history. See how fundamental the milkshake is to American culture!

A concrete or Blizzard, made famous by Dairy Queen, is a very thick milkshake made with soft serve ice cream. Done right, it will be so thick that you can hold the cup upside down without any dripping. These are popular, but I think a milkshake purist will tell you about the virtues of a traditional spun shake.

Summer is fading and with it the ice cream cone season. But milkshakes are a year round pleasure – more often enjoyed in restaurants than outdoors. If you haven’t had a shake recently, get back to it. Start with your favorite flavor in a traditional style, then move up to the new generation of dessert shakes. It’s a trend worth following.