Popbar

We tried Popbar on Friday, and I’ve got cold feelings about it so far. First off, Ally Village is a new shopping center and very trendy. All the businesses surround a fake grass field. Equipped with benches and soccer nets. It is very much something you might find in Houston. At the time of our visit, several high school students were taking advantage of the mini soccer field, and they were having a good time. Ally Village acts like they are going to be putting on concerts and such. They had “The Cleverlys” play a private concert for the grand opening, I hope more live music comes soon. Popbar does seem to be in good company, as they are surrounded by a ton of new businesses.

Here are some of their neighbors;

Ally Outdoors
Fox Den
Butter
Baker Schorr Fine Art
Nines Apparel

One final note here, Ally Village does look to have several empty buildings. So these fine stores will be getting more neighbors real soon.

Taste:

I’ll give them credit I think the popsicles tasted good. They were soft and flavorful, and the kids loved them. You have quite a few flavors to choose from, and quite an assortment of dips.

Cost:

The price per popsicle is not marked at all, it’s not on any of the fancy monitors, or on the ice cream cabinets. Every other business in town clearly lets you know cost and such beforehand. It was around 5 dollars for a popsicle, and it looked to me that getting them dipped didn’t change the cost. I could be wrong about this. But a family of 4 should expect to pay 20 dollars and up. So, tip #1 Popbar let’s get some pricing up on the walls.

Seating and Cleanliness:

Two bar stools, and one table that holds maybe 3 or 4. Now they may have more seating on the way. However, it looks to be more of a here’s your popsicle, now get out of here kind of deal. Now, in my opinion, they need more seating for the single reason of containing their mess. By not having any seating people are taking the popsicles outside and the front sidewalk looked like a “Game of Thrones” battle that had only involved melting popsicles. I am guessing the melted popsicles follow most guest over to the play area, that serves all the businesses for the All Village. I wonder how much fun it is trying to clean popsicle off fake grass. I hope that Popbar Midland keeps the power washers busy. Also noted the inside didn’t sparkle as a brand-new business should. The dip station looked dirty. To the side of the business was a whole load of empty boxes, ladders and such. It was to side but clearly visible from the parking lot.

Final thoughts:

Midland has needed a popsicle place for a while. Lubbock has a franchise, Frios Gourmet Pops for a few years now and they seem to be very popular. The main difference I can see between Frios and Popbar. Is that Frio is more about being a popsicle and less about the dips, and they cost around 3 dollars. So, let’s give Popbar a chance, they just opened. They are working the bugs out. They will be here for quite a while. A new shopping center like this, probably require a minimum 5-year lease and I’ve heard some require 10 and 15-year leases. So good or bad Popbar is here for the long haul!

PS:

When I started writing this, I did not understand that Popbar was a franchise model. They have locations all over, the map shows several in Texas. Austin, Dallas, Fort Worth. The business doesn’t need a ton of square footage so they can easily slip these in smaller spaces. Please comment if you have ever been to a Popbar in a different town? I am curious about how other franchises run this business.