While on vacation with my family in Nashville in the spring of 2002, we stumbled across a unique shop called Las Paletas. It was a simple store, selling unique sweets called Mexican paletas—more commonly known as pops. But they were so much more than just pops! These delicious paletas were gourmet, brightly colored, all natural and healthy, too—simply unlike anything we’d ever had. When we tasted these amazing pops, we decided everyone needed to know about this.
Fast forward 9 years. As I was turning 40, I found myself unhappy in my career and wanting to fulfill a lifelong dream of owning a restaurant. So, I quit my job and began learning all I could about restaurant ownership from some amazing friends (thanks Cameron Carr and Jan Moon!). My mom and I developed all of the initial recipes and that was a real treasured time for me since she had taught me to cook. My amazing wife, Amy, provided support in every possible way—I love her to the moon and back. My four awesome sons worked hard behind the scenes doing countless errands and odd jobs. Suffice to say, this company was the result of my family and many of our closest friends coming together to support this dream of ours. We are blessed beyond measure.
So, after countless hours of praying, planning, working and taste testing, Steel City Pops was born! In early 2012, we started the build-out of our first storefront in Homewood, Alabama; from there, things began to unfold rather quickly. We opened for business in May of 2012, serving pops out of our store, as well as from vending carts at local farmers’ markets and various places around Birmingham.
Now you can get your Steel City Pops in over 13 locations across the southeast. (See All of Our Locations)
From the very first moment until now, we have filled every day with a passion for our product and a desire to keep our customers first. We are grateful that our community has continued to grow and hopefully if we aren’t in your neighborhood yet, we will be soon! I look forward to seeing all of you in our store, getting to know you and sharing with you some delicious pops!