Downtown Lafayette’s newest food business occupies a niche spot in the neighborhood’s foodie ecosystem. Doc’s Pop-In opened on Monday, Feb. 24 at 734 Jefferson St., and offers a variety of drinks, pantry items, hot carry-out snacks and produce in a cozy space behind Pop’s Poboys.
The corner store falls “somewhere between Tammy’s and Wild Child” in its range of goods, according to owner Collin Cormier. Cormier, who also operates Lafayette restaurants Viva La Waffle, Pop’s Poboys, Central Pizza and The Flats, felt there was an underserved market between the convenience store staples available at Tammy’s Grocery in Freetown, and the high-end wines, tinned fish and breads on offer at Wild Child Wines.
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“We have quite a lot of Louisiana stuff, but other than that, just cool brands that you don’t necessarily see everywhere,” said Cormier on the shop’s opening day. “We might have it,” is Doc’s Pop-In’s tongue-in-cheek slogan, and items include goods from Oregon’s Heyday Canning Co., a number of Japanese and Korean cooking brands, Italian tomato sauces, fresh breads from local bakers Sunny Akers and Straw Cove Baking Co., local eggs and other produce, and more items that you would expect to find during a quick run to the corner shop.
They will also carry some hot and refrigerated carry-out items, prepared in Pop’s Poboys kitchen next door. Meat pies, pepper jack boudin balls, crawfish pies and boudin eggrolls were available in the hot case on opening day, and the cooler carried goods like freshly-chopped trinity, a charcuterie snack box, chicken salad with Pop’s “hot hot” sauce and Pop’s range of homemade dressings…