Route 66 fans ‘POPS' a top at new store

By Steve Lackmeyer

Published: August 7, 2007

ARCADIA — When Aubrey McClendon thinks about Route 66, his thoughts turn not just to trips to California, but to the road's darker history as an escape route from Oklahoma.

"I had always been fascinated with the road going to California,” McClendon said Monday. "I read ‘The Grapes of Wrath' and wondered what it would be like to be starved out of Oklahoma.”

No such exodus could be seen Monday when McClendon's own contribution to the mother road, "POPS,” opened at 5:30 a.m. Monday to a line of about 40 people.

Customers spent hours in the Chesapeake Energy chief executive's tribute to soda pop, snapping photos of the giant pop bottle along the Route 66, waiting for a table in the small cafe or simply browsing through the hundreds of varieties of soda on sale in the convenience store.

The crowds continued throughout the day, confounding McClendon's plans for a quiet opening without any publicity. Manager Marty Doepke encountered one news crew after another as customers packed the landmark's old fashioned lunch counter, convenience store — and grabbed up soda brands usually unheard of in this part of the country.

"We did our very best to keep this quiet, but word spread quickly,” Doepke said. "The last three or four days we had to have someone at the door to keep the public out.”

Admitted stalkers included Barbara Johnson, who shared lunch at POPS with sister-in-law Joy Jeffrey and grandchildren Brandon, 7, and Madison, 9.

"We saw it all lit up last night when we came by to check on it,” Barbara Johnson said. "So we came back again today. It's just so neat, so different for this area.”

The Johnsons left after sampling three different varieties of soda.

Those keeping an eye on the first-day crowds included Hardy Watkins, director of the Oklahoma Department of Tourism.

"We know this is a business, but it's also an attraction,” Watkins said. "It's on Route 66, and with the unique way they are putting this concept together, it's going to make people want to stop. I think Route 66 will see a nice impact from it. It speaks to the viability of the road today. You have a nice juxtaposition — the 100-year-old Round Barn down the street and now this new style convenience store and soda fountain.”

Watkins said he appreciated the tributes to Route 66 inside POPS — including photos of Oklahoma highway attractions in the cafe and Route 66 sites from other locations in the convenience store.

Not all visitors were gravitating to the glass wall of soda bottles. Amy Thigpen, an architectural intern from Manhattan, N.Y., spent the afternoon photographing the building itself before settling in for a drink and a bite to eat at the lunch counter. She had high praise for Oklahoma City architect Rand Elliott, who designed POPS.

"It's not just a gas station,” Thigpen said. "It's interesting to see the new icons coming on board, and he's establishing a new identity for Oklahoma.”

McClendon said Elliott was the first person he visited with when considering building POPS three years ago. Their work together includes more than two dozen projects, including development of the Chesapeake Energy campus at NW 63 and Western Avenue.

McClendon had bought the property a decade earlier, and was never happy with an adjoining gas station that faced the highway. He decided to replace the gas station when it was closed by previous owners.

"But anybody can build a gas station or convenience store,” McClendon said. "I wanted to build something unique. So how do you get a hook — how do you make it a nationwide attraction? I described to Rand growing up on vacation, and I mentioned seeing the different pop bottles from around the country.”

Elliott took that tidbit and developed it into POPS. The name carried special meaning for McClendon, since he refers to his own father as "pop.”

So with just about every soda pop imaginable at his fingertips, what is McClendon's favorite flavor?

"Dr Pepper,” he responds. "I'm also a big fan of Ginger Ale.”

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