Christmas in Oklahoma, pt. 2

Longtime B&Y readers probably are aware that I'm a Route 66 aficionado. I traveled the Mother Road from end to end as part of a four-month, 48-state, 22,000-mile road trip back in 1992, an excursion that ranks as one of my life's highlights to date, and even had a Route 66 road sign tattoed on my upper arm.

But, like drive-in buffs, fans of old roads must too often deal with news that is bad rather than good, developments that are too often discouraging rather than heartening. Classic establishments -- mom-and-pop roadside eateries, long-standing motor courts, vintage bijous -- fall by the wayside and are, one by one, replaced by franchised operations that have not half the character of the venerable operations they replace.

So it was with cautious optimism that I received the news some months back that a local entrepreneur was opening a new kind of roadside traveler's stop not on the interstate, but smack dab on Route 66, just up the road (or down, depending upon the direction one is traveling) from the historic Round Barn in Arcadia, Oklahoma.

I never dreamed just how thrilling I'd find this new establishment, which has been dubbed Pops, once I got to visit it. But thrilled -- even giddy -- is just how Flo and I felt when we paid Pops a visit over the holidays (Flo took the photos seen in this post, by the way). Our hearts fairly skipped a beat when we saw the 66-foot, four-ton soda bottle rising on the horizon, and we were in no way disappointed after our visit had ended.

The concept behind Pops is simple, really. It's a travel stop not unlike a golden-era Stuckey's or a Love's Country Store or any of a thousand other roadside service stations motorists patronize on a daily basis while traveling the nation's highways and byways. They sell gasoline outside and one-half of the interior space is a convenience store, with the same snacks and sundries you'd expect to find at a 7-11 or a truck stop.

But in the coolers of that convenience store, one finds not just Coke, Pepsi, Sprite and Mountain Dew, but 500 different types of soda (or pop, as it's known in Oklahoma) -- brands both old and new, familiar and forgotten, local and international. Pops features 43 varieties of root beer alone!

You can buy the bottles individually or put together mix-and-match six-packs or even a wooden crate full (these crates are created especially for Pops, and like everything else in the place, they are beautifully designed).

The other half of Pops is a restaurant and shake shop. The diner-style food's top-notch, too, with quality ingredients like all-natural, pesticides-free beef from an area ranch.

The building, as you can see in the artist's rendering above, is a non-kitschy throwback to service station architecture of the 1950s and '60s. As described at pops66.com, it's a "futuristic vision rising from the pastoral Arcadian valley itself, with its native Oklahoma red rock base and steel trusses like giant tree branches.

"The huge canopy cantilevers, unsupported, 100 feet to shelter vehicles and their occupants from sun, rain and snow. So big, it creates an 'outdoor room,' it’s an unexpected sensation we bet you’ve never experienced -- with wildflowers and trees all around you.

The huge windows at Pops are filled floor to ceiling with shelves lined with hundreds of colorful soda pop bottles. It's a whimsical touch that proves to be quite engaging. And they've fully embraced Route 66, too, selling 66 souvenirs that don't even mention

The notion of such a wonderful new attraction thriving on America's Main Street -- and in my home state, just east of my home town -- makes me just as pleased and proud as I can be.

Posted by brett at 12:45 PM | TrackBack