While tourists might assume her business is a popsicle or lollipop place, “people from Utah know we’re a soda pop place,” says Lindsey Vacarro, who owns Lop’s Pop Stop with her husband, Stephen.
Lop’s Pop Stop, which recently celebrated its five-year anniversary, runs from a small yellow building in the parking lot of Knowles Home Furnishings – a longtime local business run by Lindsey’s parents, Kim and Chris Knowles. Located at 1004 S. Main, its summer hours are 10:30 a.m. until 8 p.m. every day.
Lop’s Pop Stop’s menu includes an array of shakes, floats and freezes, purées, cookies, and ice cream, and a long list of soda pop- and lemonade-based drinks called “Lop’s Popular Pops.” And, while the menu has dozens of drink options – “There’s just so many now!” Vacarro said with a laugh – customers may also mix and match to create a custom drink. Sugar-free options are available.
“We have close to 50 flavors that you can add to any soda, water, soda water, lemonade or tea,” Vacarro said.
Several of the Popular Pops’ names are inspired by Moab-area place names, such as the Island in the Sky (Sprite with a coconut flavor shot, mango puree, peach puree, and fresh lime), Hell’s Revenge (Coke or Pepsi with cranberry and raspberry flavor shots) and Delicate Arch (Dr. Pepper with pina colada puree, raspberry puree and vanilla cream). Others are inspired by the community, such as the Red Devil (Coke with cherry and coconut flavor shots) and the Devilette (Sprite with flavor shots of raspberry and blood orange) named for the Grand County High School sports teams. There is also one drink named for the Pop Stop itself: the Lop, which is fresh lime squeezed into a half-and-half mixture of Sprite and cranberry juice.
Vacarro said the most popular of the Popular Pops is the Local, which is Sprite with cherry flavor and fresh lime.
There is also a “water menu” which includes offerings such as the Afternoon Delight (strawberry puree, sugar-free vanilla, and fresh lemon) and Tropical Water (sugar-free coconut and double fresh lime).
Customers may order their drinks blended, which Vacarro said makes it more like “a slurpy” and “really good.”
Lop’s Pop Stop also has a food menu, including hot dogs with toppings, nachos and Frito pies, as well as a variety of soft pretzels.
“We’re a good place if you want a quick lunch or quick, easy dinner,” Vaccaro said, adding that they do catering as well.
Vaccaro said the idea for Lop’s Pop Stop originated close to a decade ago, when another Moab establishment that offered popular drinks closed.
“When they closed, everybody kinda panicked because no one could get their cherry Pepsi or cherry fresh lime,” said Vacarro, joking that “everybody had withdrawals.”
Vaccaro said she saw the success of several drive-through coffee shops and wondered if a soda pop shop could do the same thing.
Vacarro said that, back then, her father advised her to wait until her and her husband’s plate was a little less full – they both work other jobs, he as a plumber and she as a hairstylist – and at the time, she was running a dance studio in addition. Once she sold the dance studio, they decided to make a go of the soda pop drive-through idea.
Vacarro said the prices for commercial real estate were high, and so she talked to her parents, who agreed to allow her and her husband to rent the spot. It took a while to get the planning and zoning side of things worked out, but eventually, they were good to go. They just needed a name.
Vacarro said her little sister was the one who came up with Lop’s, and that it comes from a childhood nickname, “Lindsey Lauper,” a reference to her love of pop icon Cyndi Lauper. Lauper…Lop…Lop’s Pop Stop.
“It’s kinda fun that I now have a place named after me,” Vacarro said.
Originally, Lop’s Pop Stop had planned a big five-year anniversary celebration – but the COVID-19 pandemic prevented that. However, during a community event where people drove up and down Main Street as a way of socializing and boosting morale while protecting public health, Lop’s Pop Stop handed out around 350 free root beer floats in honor of its anniversary.
The pandemic has not hit Lop’s Pop Stop as hard as some other local small businesses. Vacarro said Lop’s implemented Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and health department guidelines and has been able to stay open and keep all its employees.
Through Lop’s Pop Stop, the Vacarros support various groups and causes in the community, including the Grand County High School sports teams. Both Vacarros are GCHS alumni. They have also sponsored the Terry Page Memorial Golf Tournament, which donates proceeds to GCHS, and have lent support in the form of reduced-price gift certificates to the Grand County Public Library’s summer reading program, Vaccaro said. Lop’s also did a fundraiser for a local man in treatment for cancer.
Vacarro said Lop’s Pop Stop can be followed on Facebook and Instagram, and contacted at lopspopstop@gmail.com.
Lop’s Pop Stop a Moab fixture for 5 years
“We have close to 50 flavors that you can add to any soda, water, soda water, lemonade or tea.”
– Lindsey Vaccaro
When: 10:30 a.m. to 8 p.m. daily, summer hours
Where: 1004 S. Main St., Moab
Contact: lopspopstop@gmail.com, follow on Facebook and Instagram
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