From Tomorrow’s News Today…
Steel City Pops, a Birmingham based popsicle business, is planning to make its Atlanta debut later this summer in Decatur. The new store is expected to open at 312 Church Street, in a space originally planned for Guy Wong’s Big Boss Chinese restaurant.Although as recently as this past December, Wong was “testing” dishes for Big Boss at his Westside eatery Le Fat, plans for the 312 Church property have been abandoned. I spoke to Wong earlier this week and he confirmed that “we are not moving forward with that project.”
…The Decatur location of Steel City Pops at the corner of E. Trinity Place and Church Street measures about 3,500 square feet and will not only sell pops, but will also serve as a production facility for what the company anticipates will be other area locations.
Lots more detail over at TNT.
It’s interesting how many Decatur dessert shops have opened on Church Street over the years…
Photo courtesy of Steel City Pops Facebook page
Trading what sounded like a cool Chinese/dim sum/karaoke room concept from one of Atlanta’s most exciting chefs for yet another King of Pops copycat (in a city already saturated with frozen dessert options) feels like a net loss. But after waiting years for Big Boss with little evidence of progress, part of me knew this was coming.
A little conflicted about this. Cool to see another local production facility in the city, but at the same time, I’m awfully loyal to KoP.
I was at the Dogwood Festival this spring and throughout Piedmont Park there would be a KoP cart and then maybe 50 yards away there would be some other pop purveyor (whose name escapes me). KoP invariably had a line 10-15 people long. The other guys had a lot of time to cultivate their Twitter feeds. So if I were a paleta-style pop maker trying to crack the Atlanta market, I’d be very, VERY sure I had a solid business plan, because the brand loyalty in this town is not to be underestimated.