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Pleasant Pops owners Brian Sykora and Roger Horowitz opened a slightly smaller, more streamlined version of their Adams Morgan cafe yesterday at 731 15th St. NW. Located in the former Potenza wine shop space, the new spot serves coffee, pastries, and frozen pops, but no sandwiches and salads.
Sykora says they were attracted to the location after seeing the growth of the farmers market by the White House, where they have sold their pops on Thursdays for the last couple seasons. “Coming downtown, we saw a lot of Starbucks, a lot of national coffee chain presence, but very few independent shops,” Sykora says.
The new Pleasant Pops will have a couple drip coffee options from Annapolis, Md.-based Ceremony Coffee Roasters plus a full espresso bar. A rotating selection of scones and biscuits are prepared by BakeHouse but baked on-site. There are also nearly a dozen varieties of frozen pops—made at the Adams Morgan location, which has a more substantial kitchen—including flavors like blueberry pancake, Mexican chocolate, strawberry rhubarb, and cucumber chili. The pops are $3 each or $11 for four (including tax).
The new location doesn’t have a market like the Adams Morgan outpost, but you will find some packaged cookies from Whisked!, bottles of Capital Kombucha, and bags of coffee beans. The space has just four tables inside plus some picnic tables outside.
Pleasant Pops,731 15th St. NW; pleasantpops.com
Photos by Jessica Sidman