Gourmet popcorn has landed in Pittsburgh. Sharing a passion for artisan crafted popcorn, wife and husband team Genalle and Rob Day—who met while working at a $15 million popcorn company in Times Square—have opened
The Pittsburgh Popcorn Company at 209 21st. St. in the Strip District.
“We wanted to do our own recipes and décor, and make it more cheeky. The Strip is where people go for food, and tourists know to come here,” says Genalle Day, 28, an Overbrook native. Her husband Rob, 30, a Queens native, developed popcorn flavors in New York. “There used to be popcorn stores Downtown—people are nostalgic about it.”
The only store of its kind in the city, the 850-square-foot shop specializes in gourmet flavors like Rocky Road, Garlic Parmesan and Smacker Jacks. The young entrepreneurs, who pop 150 gallons of popcorn a day, test each recipe and invite patrons to watch the process. The shop’s rustic décor features a faux tin ceiling, French doors, concrete countertops, and a signature 1920s green stove. During summer, the shop will sell smoothies and Italian sodas and add outdoor seating.
The pair, who live in the nearby
Cork Factory, hope to partner with area nonprofits. “Pittsburgh is a comfortable place to live. It has everything New York has. We can afford to have the life we want to have here,” says Day, a former
Duquesne Tamburitzan who founded NYC’s
World Dance Theatre. “A lot of people think they can’t start a business. We got a small business loan and made it happen.
Neighbors in the Strip has brought a whole new layer—everybody’s been great.”
Writer:
Jennifer BaronSource: Genalle Day, The Pittsburgh Popcorn Company
Photograph copyright Brian Cohen