My plea to restaurants is this: please offer us something delicious to drink that is free of caffeine, alcohol and way too much sugar. Your diners will thank you.

I know plenty of diners with my predicament: I don’t care for sugary sweet sodas, I don’t drink caffeine after a certain hour, and I avoid alcohol when driving after a review.

So when I find restaurants offering beverage options beyond ordinary tap water, or fancy bottled varieties a la Pellegrino, Perrier or Voss, I’m thankful and impressed.

Lately, I’ve noticed the appearance of DRY Soda, low sugar/caffeine free sodas in fanciful flavors like rhubarb and lemongrass, on menus all around town. I recently interviewed the owner of the Seattle-based company and I’ll post a feature next week about the company that got its start in Tacoma.

In the meantime, let me tell you about a root beer with a grownup taste that might intrigue those in search of less sugary soda options: house-made root beer at the Powerhouse Brewery in Puyallup. Read more »