Not Made in a Lab but Made By a Lab's Family - Heidi Pops Popcorn

Today, instead of a story about a dog, I'd like feature one of my favorite new family owned "Hoosier" businesses (Indiana, for those not familiar with the phrase) that's owned by a couple of dog lovers.

Today I had to drop a friend off at the Indianapolis Airport at lunch time and stopped on my way out of town at the Metropolis Mall in Plainfield, Indiana (Futura Parkway just off Perry Road, which is a little West of the airport off of I-70.) There's a nice little Irish pub there we had a bloggers gathering at one time, that I wanted to try again for lunch before I hit the freeway. But first, a wander to check out a new business I'd heard of.

The Metropolis mall is a fun little outdoor mall, with an eclectic assortment of shops, a good restaurant or two and a movie theater. I'm not a fan of malls, but I liked this one. It's more like a cluster of unique shops as opposed to that whole "mall" feeling, in a suburban community that's low on crime and high on friendliness. Plainfield police have a station on the main street and the feel to the whole place was clean and family friendly. 

Heidi Pops Gourmet Popcorn. I heard about it from a friend that works in Plainfield and knows Heidi.  She said --"Heidi and her husband have black labs-- you need to go say hello".  So I did. Owned by a husband and wife team, and yes, "Mom and Dad" to two Labrador Retrievers, the store's been open for a couple of weeks, ready for their permanent sign and hungry customers. This is their dream, after a lifetime of good jobs working for others, to have their own Mom and Pop (pun intended) business; the entrepreneurial spirit of America alive and well in them.

There's a couple of other popcorn places around the Indianapolis area. Good, but not enough to make me go out of my way to get some. But I DO like popcorn. . .

Wow. THIS popcorn I'd make the drive for. Seriously, if I was anywhere near the I-465/I-70 interchange in Indianapolis I'd be stopping in.  OK, if I was anywhere  in the middle of the STATE, I'd stop in. It's not mass produced, but hand crafted in small batches and Mr. G. was making some as I wandered in. It's the kind of popcorn you'd find at places such as Gerrett's in Chicago without the drive and that special Illinois pricing. The popcorn I got today at Heidi Pops to share with some friends later was still warm in the bag and was quite reasonably priced for the quality. 

I was warmly greeted by Mr. G. when I popped in and was given a quick tour of their treats and tastes. Then I snapped some pictures while he set up more samples for customers to try.  They always have some standards such as caramel corn, caramel corn with pecans or almonds, and sharp cheddar cheese.

Today they also had buffalo ranch.  MMMMM. And Pickle.  Yes Pickle.   If you love sea salt and vinegar style chips you will snarf up the pickle flavor.

The cheddar popcorn is amazing  It's a sharp cheddar, though not a biting sharp, and tastes like the best quality real cheddar, not that cheddar-like cheezy dust you usually find on popcorn. It's like you mated the best quality Indiana popcorn with that wonderful sharp cheddar pub cheese in the brown crock. I would drive a long way for this cheddar popcorn.

You can get a single serving size bag, small, medium, or large for sharing, and tubs up to many gallons, which you can fill with more than one flavor, with little dividers put in them. And there were a lot of flavors in addition to the ones pictured here, including chocolate and some colorful fruit flavors that would surprise you.

They also have some fun decorative tins, small to large, which would make great little gifts for family, coworkers or perhaps a holiday housewarming, birthday, new baby, etc. Dad is so going to enjoy the one I'll get him during the Christmas season.  I'm also going to get a huge tin of the buffalo ranch and cheese popcorn to haul home for my co-workers.  Heidi Pops - parties, catering, they do it all.

So, if you are traveling through Indiana, or work or live here, stop on in and bring home some tasty goodness. I can't wait to get home so I can try it.

How did my steering wheel end up orange?

Don't eat and drive.