This takeout window in South Philly is doling out warm buns and kolache
Cinnamon buns, sticky buns, and three varieties of kolache are served at Pop's Bun Shop.
Bella Vista’s carbo load is staggering. There’s Sarcone’s Bakery on Ninth Street, with Angelo’s Pizzeria a few doors up. Isgro Pastries is on Christian, as are Fiorella’s Pasta, Biederman’s, and John’s Water Ice.
Sugar Crunch, a new candy shop, is coming to Christian near Ninth, and Bart’s Bagels opened recently at 10th and Catharine.
The latest addition is Pop’s Bun Shop at Ninth and Catharine, the tiny corner with a takeout window, which was previously a French sandwich shop and convenience store.
At 9 a.m. Fridays and Saturdays, the neighborhood lines up for buns both sweet and savory. There’s an iced cinnamon roll ($5), sticky buns with nuts ($4.50) and without ($4), and three kinds of kolache — a filled pastry, popular in Texas, that riffs on the Czech treat klobásník. Last Saturday, John offered one sweet kolach (blueberry, $5) and two savory kolache (egg, cheese, and tomato chutney, $4.50; and sausage and gravy, $5.50).
They’ve been selling out before the stated 2 p.m. closing. Karen Blisard works the window, through which customers can see the warm treats cooling on racks — there is no display case — while her husband, John, keeps up with the baking in convection ovens.
They had considered uncovering the shop’s full-length glass doors to allow customers to see the wares, but the sun made the pastries sweat.
The Blisards — he’s from the Philadelphia area and she’s from Northern Ireland — lived nearby a few years back and figured that this kind of small-batch baking would go over well in the area. “We’re seeing a lot of the same faces,” John Blisard said Monday after its second weekend. They expect to expand days once they hire an employee. There is no online ordering.
They’re home bakers, “so there’s still a lot of learning for us to do while we scale up,” said John Blisard, who previously worked for Applegreen, while Karen worked for Crate & Barrel.
The menu is as small as the shop — just buns, not even coffee. “There are so many great coffee shops in our neighborhood, between Gleaner’s and Anthony’s,” John Blisard said. “We’re a bun shop selling buns, not a coffee shop selling buns.”