Mark on the Shore

Mark’s Score   8.5

I had just finished a walk in Stephen Decatur Park, done a little shopping, and visited the Mermaid Museum so I was ready for lunch.  I had planned to have lunch at The Vault, but they were closed on this particular day.  I had heard some good things about Pop’s, especially their soups, so I decided to have pizza and soup for lunch. 

Pop’s Kitchen was opened by Bob and Kelli Beck in 2019. The Beck’s had extensive experience in the restaurant business, having owned DeNovo Trattoria in Ocean Pines, which closed in 2022. The Becks received permission from Berlin’s Historic District Commission to renovate an old storefront on Gay Street. Their concept for Pop’s is a quick service casual restaurant offering classic Italian-American dishes emphasizing consistency rather than a constantly changing menu.  The focus is on convenient comfort food made from scratch, using high-quality ingredients. 

I had actually been planning to try this Pop’s for a while, but it is on a side street behind the Atlantic Hotel and off the beaten path. So, every time I went to Berlin, I would get distracted and end up picking a restaurant on Main Street. Pop’s is precisely the type of restaurant I like to patronize. It is a small family restaurant offering made from scratch food and located in an historic downtown building that had once been abandoned. So, it ticked all my boxes. 

I have lost count of the number of local pizza-joints I have been to that look and feel like a divvy biker’s bar. So, I was pleasantly surprised when I walked in and was confronted with a sleekly modern tastefully designed dining area. The most important thing in a restaurant is of course the food, but all things being equal, I would rather eat in a restaurant that didn’t look like it needed a good scrub and a new coat of paint. I also appreciated that I could order pizza by the slice rather than having to buy a whole pizza that I know I could not finish.  I had heard good things about their soups, so I ordered a cup of the tomato soup and two slices of pizza. 

I have been on a quest for some time to find the best pizza on the Delmarva. I liked Pop’s pizza. It reminded me of the old-style pizzas that you would get at the beach. I wouldn’t rate it the best pizza in the area, but the crust was firm, and they were generous with the cheese and peperoni. I would certainly eat their pizza again, without reservation. But the star of the show was the tomato soup. It was delicately creamy without being heavy and perfectly seasoned. I almost wished I had skipped the pizza and just ordered the soup. 

For me, this restaurant falls in the happy middle, I would not rate it a destination restaurant, but I could easily see myself as a regular customer when I was in the mood for soup or pizza, this is classic Italian comfort food. 

What else is there to do in Berlin?

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