‘People love it’: Soda Pops expanding restaurant business
Published 10:00 am Saturday, April 8, 2023
- Eli Crowe works as a server and curbside delivery person at Soda Pops on John R. Junkin Drive. (Sabrina Robertson | The Natchez Democrat)
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NATCHEZ — Years of good quality food and customer service have brought good fortune to Soda Pops restaurant by the Natchez Mall.
Enough fortune to expand the business into the neighboring suite at 352 John R. Junkin Drive, owner Heather Crowe said.
Soon Soda Pops will be knocking down a wall and opening up more space to seat its hungry customers, as well as adding a drive-through window.
Crowe said the expansion should take a couple of months before completion and expects to “stay open and keep everyone fed” through the whole process.
“We’re not 100 percent sure what it will be yet,” she said. “We’ve started serving breakfast (8 a.m. to 10:30 a.m.) and we’re not sure if we will continue doing that or not. We just ran out of space and it seemed like a good opportunity to expand when Lucy Warren at Riva Chic announced she was relocating her business. We decided we would rent her spot.”
Soda Pops is a primarily family-run restaurant with one other employee who is not blood-related but is still part of the family, Crowe said.
Heather’s specialty food is sandwiches while her daughter Izzie loves cooking breakfast food. Her husband, Shawn Crowe, and son Eli with long-time employee Chris Stearns all help run the business.
The restaurant first opened more than 14 years ago, Heather Crowe said.
“I had no idea then that it would become what it has,” she said. “It has grown and grown more than I would have ever imagined.”
Crowe attributes the growth spurt to the family atmosphere were “everybody knows everybody,” and quality food and service.
Her most popular menu items have been the ranch chicken and sizzler steak sandwich, she said.
“We make our own ranch here and people love it,” she said.