Pop’s Bun Shop opened in the winter of 2024 and quickly got write ups in the Philly Inquirer and became popular on Instagram.  The shop is a small corner bakery that sells its sweet sticky buns and Kolache, riffs on the Czech treat klobásník, from a to-go window.  There is almost always a line down the block waiting to be served, especially on Friday and Saturday.  My experience was that part of the reason for the line was that it seemed that everyone needed to have some sort of conversation with the server at the window, took some photos at the take-out window and then struggled to get their Apple/Google pay apps to work.  The menu is handwritten on a school lunch bag taped to the inside of the glass door and items get crossed off the list as they sell out.  The buns and kolache are baked in small batches and Pop’s stays open until they sell out.  They are open Thurs 9am – 1pm, Fri 9am – 1pm and Sat 9am – 1pm/sellout. They typically sell three kinds of sweet buns and three types of Kolache, one sweet and the other two are savory.  Ona random note I learned from Wikipedia’s interesting entry on Kolache, apparently they are big in Texas.

The Dumplings.  Kolache are a type of stuffed, baked bun, and so are within the remit of Dumpling Hunter.  Pretty consistently when I have walked past the store the two choices of savory Kolache are egg, cheese and tomato chutney, which I ordered, or sausage and gravy.    The Kolache looked very similar to a Chinses baked bun.  But my take on Pop’s Kolache is that it did not live up to the Instagram and media hype, in fact the bun was really bland. The cheese appeared to be either white cheddar or white American cheese, either way a very mild cheese, and the chutney was the least flavorful chutney I have tasted.  The filling also needed more salt and a dash of pepper.

The Location:  Pop’s Bun Shop is at the northern end of Philadelphia’s amazing Italian Markey, on ninth street at the corner of Catherine street.  It is just down the street from the stellar Sarcone’s Bakery, which sells fresh Italian bread and tomato pie, and about 2 blocks from the famous Isgro’s Italian pastry bakery.  If you are near the Italian Market and crave bread/pastry products Isgro’s and Sarcone’s are your top choices.