End of Season 4

After a little bit of this....

(yes we did sell pops when it was SNOWING, never again please)

We did a little bit of this....

(closing down the shops for the season)

Tomorrow, there'll be a little bit of this...

(Joel & Danielle GET MARRIED!!!!)

and then, we'll all experience a little bit of this...

Thanks for another GREAT season, y'all!

We're out!

(keep in touch....lots of good stuff brewing.......)

Season ends soon!

And now, a little poetic interlude....

Summertime came and went

But thanks for all the times well spent!

Unfortunately our time is almost through

Making our delicious ICE POPS for you!

So stock up now, while you still can

Before everything's packed away in our People's Pops van....

The fabulous Christine wrote this poem to commemorate the end of our *fourth* season, which mostly ends Oct 15, although we'll stay open in Chelsea Market until Halloween.

We're sad to go. This summer's been amazing! Our business doubled, our shops tripled, our staff quadrupled. Nathalie's toenail, which turned black from where she dropped an ice block on it in May, has finally grown back to normal. Time flies when you're having fun! Through it all, we kept our eyes on the prize: delicious pops, busy shops, great service, good times.

Who made the times so good? The troopers listed below, our 2011 crack team of perpetually smiling, very sexy, strong-as-oxen ice mongers. I present you:

Rue Snider	Meghan Sebold	Jack O'Brien
Charlie Stopek	Charlie Smith	Christine Wang
Malcolm Barrett	Sharlena Powell	Ben Silbert
Clyde Loving-Cortes	Gasky Joseph	Jaymie O'Brien
Danelle Snider	Katie Traynor	Michael Caglione
Kaitlin Winter	Justin Manley	Brian Austin
Darren Fiorello	Eamonn McMahon	Marilyn Stout

I wish I had a group photo from our midsummer party to post here, but I drank too much to remember to take one. Maybe it's best left undocumented.

But hark! It's a miraculous 80 degrees in New York as I write this (October 8), ideal ice-pop temperature. So why are you reading this? Go out and eat some pops while you still can!

Photo Shoot at Nat's Apartment

After the high last week of having achieved our lifelong dream of prime real estate on New York Magazine's approval matrix, this week's photo shoot with photographer Jennifer May and prop stylist Alana Chernila was icing on the cake.

Alana transformed my apartment into a prop shop that was everything we'd wished for: stylish, retro, imaginative, whimsical.

Caught mid-photo, the fabulous Jennifer May, with husband Chris in the background.

Lunch break for Korean food from across the street.

Joel putting some finishing touches on a cantaloupe & Campari shot.

Our type of pièce montée.

Blow-drying for the ice-pop equivalent of bed-head, that just-so sheen.

Blueberry & moonshine mise en scène.

Last shot of the day.

Such fun!!

Our last photo day is this Sunday, Aug 14th. Come by the Williamsburg Flea after 3 p.m. in brightly colored clothes--we'll comp your pop if you smile for our picture!

Scenes from the Summer

Cool fish-eye pic of Clyde at our East Village shop sent by popsi-fan Anna Kelman.

Megan, Sharlena, Katie & Joel getting buck wild in the kitchen while preparing custom pops for Grey Goose Vodka.

East Village People's Pops Cabana Now Open!

Hours:

5pm-10pm Monday-Wednesday

5pm-midnight Thurs-Friday

noon-midnight Saturday

noon-10pm Sunday

occasionally closed unexpectedly due to rain or flakiness

Dispatches from the People's Pops Email Inbox

From this week's email exchange, a picture of Nat and Dave at the MAST Academy prom in Miami in May 2000.

Joel responds:

David:

Pop Culture, Indeed

Has anyone noticed the profusion of pops in mass marketing this summer?

Here's a giant pop at Target, right next to a giant flip-flop.

Here's the window of J. Crew on 5th Ave (it's hard to tell, but the little squares in the backdrop are all ice pops)

Here's Pret a Manger in Union Square.

Anyone else seen examples of this lately?

What's New These Days

Our lives are moving by so fast that everything is happening in bullet points! (And exclamation marks!!) (And question marks?)

• Joel's talented brother made a video of our first day at the Brooklyn Flea this year. It's here...and so convincing that you almost forget everyone is wearing mittens and parkas. Thanks Nate!

• We are up on the High Line again for the summer: find us at the "Chelsea Market Passage" (right above 16th St).

We are suuuper psyched about this. If you haven't been on the High Line lately: Part II just opened, and it's absolutely gorgeous. Get thee to it, and after Wednesday 6/22 our Joel-and-Robin-designed new kiosk will also be there to admire.

• Besides our own retail outlets, you can also find our pops nesting chez these fine purveyors:

• Nolita Mart (Nolita)
• Brucie (Carroll Gardens)
• Marlow & Daughters (Williamsburg)
• Brooklyn Victory Garden (Clinton Hill)
• Stinky Bklyn (Carroll Gardens)
• Whole Foods (Upper West Side).

• For years now we've been turning down folks in Tennessee, Colorado or Florida who want to get their hands on some pops. No more! Anyone further afield and jonesin', take note: the lovely folks at Manhattan Fruitier will now ship people's pops overnight on dry ice. Wooooot!

• The other day I randomly noticed that the background pic on Rue's phone was the chalkboard from last year's Chelsea Market shop, where it's been....since last year. We have hired some awesome new people we feel lucky to hang out in the kitchen and on the shop with...but it's pretty great to get the old family back together again, too.

Every summer, the season swallows us in, whirls us around, and (eventually) spits us out. The ride is far from over, but we're optimistic. Our problems may be bigger, but they're better, too. Stay tuned. We have more news coming.

It's Art, Y'All.

One of our customers helped bring this one-ton block of ice to the Bahamas, where it sat for a year in a clear glass freezer powered by solar panels.

Way to make us feel like wimps, Tavares Strachan.

One-Month Pop-Up in Madison Square Park!

New Location Opening Today!

We're taking part in a one-month pop-up on the west side of Madison Square Park (Worth Square) from May 6-June 3.

Come see us! Bring your mom!!

Saturday, as always, we'll be at the Brooklyn Flea in Ft. Greene, at this new Mad Sq Mkt pop-up and at our Chelsea Market shop. We'll also be at the New Museum's Festival of Ideas for New York City, vending on Rivington St and Chrystie St.

Sunday (Mother's Day), we'll be at the Brooklyn Flea in Williamsburg, this new Mad Sq Mkt pop-up and at our Chelsea Market shop.

It's gettin' to be summer! Woot woot!

The Real Chelsea Market After Dark

FACT: people's pops Chelsea Market is open until 9pm Monday-Saturday (Sundays til 7).

FACT: you can legally drink alcohol at our Chelsea Market shop

FACT: BYOB to our Chelsea Market shop and one of our friendly servers will make you a shave ice cocktail mixer. If you don't have any booze handy, stop by Chelsea Wine Vault and pick up some Prosecco.

A few shave ice cocktail suggestions:

• watermelon-tequila
• peach-champagne
• pear-cognac

See you after dark....

Joel just sent in a pretty (daytime) pic of the shop--we love it! Much love to Robin Hiner, woodworker extraordinaire, and his cool girlfriend Katie.

Wee hours of last night

The shop in Chelsea Market's looking nearly good to go! This is it circa 6 a.m. Thursday (this) morning.

What does this mean? It means, of course, that full-fledged summer is just around the corner. And to celebrate, we're giving away free shave ice on Day 1 again, 'til supplies run out!

We're in a spot right next to last year's shop, near the doors on 15th St b/w 9th and 10th Ave, by Jacques Torres and Lucy's Whey in the so-called "Arcade." Habitués will know us by the popsicle-stick counter and the big block of ice. Just like last year, we'll be there April til October.

Prices haven't changed ($2.50 for shave ice, $3.50 for pops), and we'll still be vending at our other locations: the Brooklyn Fleas, the New Amsterdam Market, and hopefully the High Line (RFPs are due this week).

Opening flavors:

Blackberry & Sour Cherry

Plum, Yogurt & Tarragon

Blueberry-Jasmine

Strawberry-Basil

Plum & Blueberry

With customers showing up right at our 10 am opening last year for a taste of shave ice, it took just 5 hours to go through 150 pounds of ice--so show up early, say hi, and enjoy a shave on people's pops!

SEE YA THERE!!

!! Chelsea Market Opens Friday !!

It was a bit of déjà vu when we found ourselves gluing pop sticks to plywood deep into the night this weekend. (Thankfully, this time, Nat wasn't nursing wounds from having been hit by a car earlier that day...viva 2011!)

Even though we were exhausted from a big-bang day at the Brooklyn Flea (we showed up at 9 a.m. in down jackets....and ended up at 5 p.m. sunburnt, sweating and sold out), we stopped by the brand-new brick-n-mortar location of our BkFlea compatriots Asiadog on Kenmare St for sustenance in hot dog form, then zoomed over to our buddy Robin's Greenpoint workshop.

We found our groove pretty quickly and got most of the glueing done that night. Robin's woodwork looks terrific. Now we only have 4,452,236 things left to do before we open on Friday. Stay tuned for more info about the launch!

Brooklyn Flea Debut This Weekend!

Flavors Fresh Outta the Kitchen:

Blueberry-Jasmine

Strawberry w/ Organic Yogurt

Bartlett Pear, O-Cream and Ginger.

Come taste! Come celebrate! People's Pops 2011 is here!

Summer 2011: not far behind....

Saturday: Brooklyn Flea Ft. Greene

Sunday: all-new Brooklyn Flea Williamsburg Waterfront

FIRST BATCH OF POPS OF THE SEASON!!!

OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG we are back in the kitchen again. After a thorough remodel that included painting the floor, buying new freezers and hooking up unused gas lines, ‘tis the season…for the first pops of 2011! Yes, even though temps are in the flippin’ forties right now.The Brooklyn Flea debuts outside this weekend (as well as the new Williamsburg Flea, woot woot)….and who would recognize the Ft. Greene Flea without people’s pops!?!?!?!?!

We are working with frozen fruit again (from the same farmers from whom we buy in season) and are noting with happiness that even frozen, last year’s fruit is much better than 2009’s—no surprise there, but it’s good to see.

But the biggest upgrade for 2011 is our new, ten-year-old Brazilian pop-making machine—basically an alcoholic brine bath that freezes the pops much faster and, we hope, with more structural integrity.

We are experimenting with different mold shapes and are wondering what y’all think.

There's David with a blueberry-cream. Well, what do you think?!?!??!?!!

Okay, maybe we obsess over this kind of stuff way too much and are the only suckas who notice any difference in shape. (There is a slight one.) Let us know if YOU like it, or if you prefer the old mold shape. We’re still tinkering.

Or come by the Flea this weekend (Saturday or Sunday) to tell us in person….and taste the first people’s pops of 2011!! (Pops make a great accessory to snow.)

It's Still Winter, But We Can Smell Spring

How utterly relaxing this winter was. After we shut down for the season, David went to Miami and played golf for a couple of months, Joel got engaged to Danielle and laid on the beach in Costa Rica, and I drank schnapps in Alsace and faithfully attended even my most appallingly boring micro-economics classes.

How distant that time now seems. Ever since the clock ticked 2011, we’ve been caught in a whirlwind of master planning. We’ve had a brainstorming session on “risk minimization,” plotting courses of action to navigate through the most debilitating catastrophes our nightmares could produce. We’re looking around for a bank to replace god-awful Chase, who I’m embarrassed after last year’s shit fit to admit we passively stuck with, like abused dogs who keep expecting doggie treats instead of pistol-whipping. We’ve had several exciting conversations about real estate with some potential landlords around town.

The awesome John Goodwin magicked us up an online stock-taking system that lives in the cloud, and we got all of our suppliers on one spreadsheet. We’ve started testing recipes for a book we’re working on. We bought a new van that does not have rust holes in the floorboards. We’re discussing the pros and cons of buying our first cash register and maybe some accounting software (whoo, look at us gettin’ all “modern!”). We are looking into the possibilities of offering ourselves and our full-time employees health care, and for the first time in the history of our lives, we turned our tax paperwork in early.

A lot of the backbone stuff we’re doing is more corporate than we’re used to—setting up structures, building systems, creating strategy and dreaming up super-ordinate goals. But it feels good to get organized, and the way we’re doing it feels right. We’re thinking critically, spending thriftily and making decisions by consensus, like we’ve always done.

And yet—how far we still have to go. We still don’t have a new bank, or real estate, or a cash register, or health care. But we’ve come a long way, and things are trucking forward smoothly. Stay tuned for new developments soon.