When we visited Fort Worth last August we went to some great places to eat. One of the most whimsical was Steel City Pops, which makes gourmet popsicles.
Gourmet popsicles, right? Sounds a little precious — until you look at the list of flavours: Blackberry, Cranberry Orange, Hibiscus, Mango, Peanut Butter, Blueberry Cream, Avocado, Vanilla Bean, Pistachio…. I wanted to eat every one of them.
Steel City Pops has an interesting backstory: a man’s lifelong dream of owning a restaurant, inspiration from a chance discovery of a shop selling Mexican ice pops, and a first shopfront in Homewood, Alabama. Now Steel City Pops has 7 locations, 5 in Alabama and 2 in Texas — one is in Dallas and the other is in Fort Worth.
The Fort Worth shop is also conveniently located just a street or two away from Rodeo Goat, acknowledged as one of the best places in town to have a burger. That’s worth a visit too. After enjoying burgers and cheese fries there, we walked over in punishing 35° Celsius heat (95° Fahrenheit) and arrived ready for something delicious and frozen.
The shop has windows on one side in front of counter seating, where you can watch them make the pops, but apparently they were all finished for the day because the area was empty, all the machinery sitting clean and gleaming. It’s too bad, because the process of receiving a gourmet ice has none of the ritual or anticipation of, say, gourmet ice cream. There are no little taster spoons, no choice of portion size, no moment when the attendant rolls up the ice cream into a little ball with a metal scoop and presses it onto a cone.
We ordered, and the young women waiting on us reached into the freezers and handed us prewrapped ice pops. That was it.
Which is not to say it wasn’t worth it. The flavours were vibrant and clean. My husband had Blood Orange (a seasonal flavour), my stepson Coconut, and my daughter Watermelon. I had the Lemonade, which was both astringent and sweet, but I switched with my daughter, who liked it better than hers. I liked both; hers had a concentrated Watermelon taste, perfect for summer. For kids, the simpler straightforward fruity flavours will likely appeal more than the more sophisticated and exotic versions, if our children are anything to go by.
We sat inside to eat them, in a small space which was buzzing as people came and went, licking their lollies. There are seats outside but be prepared: If you sit out here, you need to work quickly to avoid drips. Luckily, because Steel City Pops taste so good, that’s not a challenge.
Steel City Pops
http://steelcitypops.com/
908 Currie Street, Fort Worth, TX 76107
facebook.com/steelcitypops
Twitter: @scpftworth
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