By: Adam Tzanis (University of Delaware)
Get ready to completely re-imagine your breakfast, or at least that’s what Kellogg’s done in opening Pop-Tarts World on the south end of 42nd street between Sixth Avenue and Broadway in Times Square.
Inside you’ll find a café toting a menu that only could’ve been created by a third grader. I imagine the consumer suggestion e-mails… “Why don’t you crush ‘em up and put ‘em in a Fruit Roll-up?” That’s what it seems like for their headlining dish, Pop-Tart “sushi,” three different types of crushed Pop-Tarts wrapped in a sweet Fruit Roll-up skin.
The sushi is just one among many under the category of “Delectably Delightfuls” alongside “Chill Out Chow” and pastries “From the Oven.” The Pop-Tarts restaurant offers several other interesting dishes including Ants on a Log?, celery, peanut butter and chunks of the Wild Grape variety; Fluffer Butter, marshmallow spread sandwiched between two Pop-Tarts frosted chocolate-fudge pastries; Smores Stix; Grape Jam Wiches; Choco Dips and Lemon Razzy.
The café also offers the option to build custom Pop-Tarts, starting with a basic pastry and having servers add frosting, toppings and drizzle of your choice; you can even decide whether to take your tart frozen, toasted, microwaved or uncooked.
Then there’s the “Varietizer,” a custom-built vending machine that allows you to choose from about 23 Pop-Tart flavors to build a variety box of six two-pack Pop-Tart varieties. There’s even a screen-printing station where you can design your own Pop-Tart T-shirt; that’s called serigraphy, folks.
I had the pleasure of going down to the store and trying out these Pop-Tart sushi’s and I must say they bring a very interesting taste to the table. The Fruit Roll-up is definitely the dominant flavor of the dish and the crunchy, chewy inner Pop-Tart adds a unique texture. I can’t say I was thrilled but they definitely had an aesthetic appeal.
Either way, these are one-of-a-kind treats and are surely serving their purpose of advertisements for the toaster pastry as well as the bonus of any sales revenue they bring along from the shop. So if you’re looking for a real sugary kick in the teeth to jump-start your day, or even for a surprising snack, be sure to check out the Pop-Tart spectacle, but don’t wait too long, the Kellogg Company will only be leasing the 3,200-square-foot-shop until January, when executives will decide whether the store makes sense in the long term.
