Owners of Pop Brothers in Gulfport opening a new kind of restaurant in South Mississippi
It will be nine years in June since Octavio and Shannon Arzola opened Pop Brothers natural popsicles in Gulfport and now they are preparing to wow the Coast again.
“We’ll take a sandwich and do what we do with a popsicle — and take it up a few notches,” she said.
Tavi’s is the name of the sandwich shop and the chef’s nickname — it’s easier to say than Octavio, Shannon said. The restaurant is scheduled to open late July or early August at 1618 25th Ave. in downtown Gulfport.
“We’re just going across the street,” she said, and across the railroad tracks.
“Octavio has wanted to open an authentic Salumerie for a couple of years now,” Shannon commented on Facebook. The community responded with hundreds of comments on his plans for the European deli.
“He stopped his career as a celebrity chef in New Orleans to move home,” she said. A trip to Barcelona, Spain, where she said they had some of the most wonderful sandwiches in small restaurants, was inspiration. He asked his wife, “Can I go back and do what I do?”
Their sandwich shop will be open just for lunch from 11 a.m.-3 p.m. and he’ll also continue Pop Brothers, just spreading himself a little thinner, she said, to follow his passion for creating memorable food.
What to expect
As the work on the building for the sandwich shop gets under way, Octavio carries his proposed menu around in his pocket.
Will authentic bocadillo de jamon Iberico be on the menu, one person asked on Facebook?
“Oh absolutely! Directly from Spain,” was Shannon’s reply.
They will make their own bread, she said, and create some really great sauces.
Octavio made sure before they decided to go ahead with the sandwich shop that he’d be able to get the European meat and cheese they needed to pull this off, Shannon said.
They’ve also ordered quality equipment like the “Best iron candy apple red meat slicer coming from Italy,” she said. It was due to be delivered Wednesday. They also have a device, poupular in Paris, that melts a wheel of cheese, making it easy to spread on a sandwich.
“Things people haven’t seen and they’ll be able to watch,” she said.
World of experience
Before he became “a popmaster,” Octavio, a native of Spain, was a food and beverage manager at Beau Rivage in Biloxi and he managed several fine-dining restaurants in Chicago.
When they moved back to South Mississippi to be closer to family, he came up with the handcrafted pops that are organic and gluten-free. Most of the dozens of flavors — all created by the chef — are made with fresh fruit.
Coronavirus was a challenge for business and they took the popsicles on the road in a food truck. They are as busy this spring, she said, as when the restaurant was new.
“We seem to have lots and lots of tourists in the store,” she said.
When the sandwich shop opens, “We will hire a few new people,” she said. “We have great employees,” many of whom have worked at Pop Brothers for years. “They want to work both places,” she said.
