Hot Dish Review

On my way home from work I happened to drive by Buddy’s on North and N. Highland where The King of Pops has set up shop. A vending cart, really. Funny how we are suddenly fascinated with mobile food vendors these days. Is it our nation’s increasingly transient culture that makes “food on the go” so appealing? Or perhaps our desire to “hunt” for our food….hungry patrons never know where the trucks or carts will pop up.

It was 93 degrees yesterday. I needed an icy treat! At $2.50, they are not expensive, but certainly on the gourmet side.

King of Pops makes all natural frozen pops with fresh fruits, herbs, and cane juice much like their Mexican counterpart, paletas. Yesterday’s selection included banana cinnamon, honeydew, chocolate sea salt, raspberry lime, strawberry lemonade, and blackberry mojito. Unbelievably I had an issue with every flavor….allergic to honeydew, don’t like chocolate ice cream, not a big fan of raspberry, and really dislike mint. I promise, I’m not that hard to please. Really. I swear.

So I ended up choosing the less creative strawberry lemonade. It was quite good but I was hoping for some fruit chunks like the ones in Mexico. Sweetened with cane juice, there was only a hint of tartness from the lemonade, the intense flavor of fresh strawberries dominating each lick. Juicy!

The creative flavors and their renegade business plan has garnered the popsicle dudes, mainly Steven Carse (although he said his brother is involved as well), a lot of press, almost entirely positive.

The pops are wildly popular and are often sold out but one can find that at Irwin Street Market in Inman Park as well as Souper Jenny in Buckhead.