It was serendipity that on the Sunday night before I left for New Jersey that I caught an episode of the Food Network’s Throwdown with Bobby Flay, where Flay duked it out for the best grilled cheese with the cooks at a famous diner in Collingswood, New Jersey, near my hometown.
Obviously, I had to check it out, so I recruited my best friend from high school to make the 20-minute drive to the restaurant – The Pop Shop.
The vibe is a soda fountain diner with cute, if not kitschy, touches like paper waiter hats and menus printed on newspapers, which I loved:
The stack of menus at the front looked totally new and unused, so it makes me wonder if each customer gets a new one, and if that’s the case, minus points for not being environmentally unfriendly. As for what’s on the menu itself, the newspaper format works considering their menu is just as dense as The New York Times. It reminds me a lot of Big Daddy’s in New York, but the food options—mostly breakfast and sandwiches—are much better. And they even have choices for vegans!
Whats in it for you: Peanut butter and chocolate chip Bettys (pancakes), cinnamon bun French toast, veggie rollo (Jack cheese, avocado, vegetarian sausage, salsa and sour cream), blueberry stuffed French toast sandwich, grilled vegetables with seitan on a baguette, buffalo tofu wings, veggie hot dogs, Madison grilled cheese (mozzarella, tomato, basil and garlic olive oil), veggie burger
Whats in it for them: Buffalo Bill omelet (grilled chicken, buffalo sauce and blue cheese), ham and cheese French toast, Walking in Memphis (BBQ pulled pork with cheddar and caramelized onions), mini beef sliders, crab pretzel, Linden grilled cheese (American, chopped Angus beef, mushrooms and caramelized onions on a soft pretzel), Frazer (Jack cheese, grilled chicken, chipotle mayo, spicy jalapeno mix and onion on sourdough)
The menu is so extensive that my friend and I literally examined it the night before and emailed each other with our top five picks. (We take our food seriously.) It was agreed that we’d get two different grilled cheese sandwiches and split. So we went for the Everett and the Virginia, both vegetarian.
The Everett - Spinach, portobello, onions and cheddar
The Virginia - roasted veggies, garlic sauteed spinach, tomato and goat cheese
As much as I don’t want to give my friend the satisfaction of choosing the better sandwich, I did, in fact, love her pick—the Everett—mostly for the cheddar (never a bad thing) and the bread. This was one of those situations when the healthier choice wasn’t the right one. The wheat bread we got on the Virginia was way too grainy for me. Lesson learned: For oozy sandwiches like these, stick to white bread.
And as “healthy” as I was trying to be (who was I kidding?), we also got traditional Pop Shop fries, which were amazing. Though they do have cheese fries, too (my fave). I just wasn’t sure my stomach could handle that assault. I love dipping my fries in BBQ sauce and even though Pop Shop proudly gave us their homemade version (right of fries below), it really wasn’t that good. So ketchup, it was.
And since we were already on a roll, the meal wouldn’t have been complete without one of their sundaes. But which to choose? At first we were gunning for the Fly Eagles Fly sundae, made of three mint chocolate chip scoops of ice scream, brownie bits, hot fudge, marshmallow topping, whipped cream, chocolate chips and green sprinkles in the spirit of the Philadelphia NFL team. Whew. That’s a lot.
I think we had some form of food coma because that sounded way too intense for us at the time (though right now, I could totally go for it), so we chose the Not Just Another Manic Sundae: three scoops of coffee ice cream (which we swapped for just two scoops of vanilla) smothered in caramel syrup, and topped with Heath bar pieces, whipped cream, and a drizzle of chocolate sauce. Heaven. And we actually probably could’ve done three scoops.
Not Just Another Manic Sundae
There was way too much on that menu I want to eventually try, so I’m already thinking about when I’ll go back next!
The Pop Shop
729 Haddon Ave.
Collingswood, NJ 08108
856.869.0111