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Popsicle mogul Jonathan Delgado and foodie Raul Figueroa outside of the soon-to-open storefront for Popston popsicles in Second Ward on Sunday, June 5, 2022.
Several flavors and a few collaborations of popsicles at the soon-to-open storefront for Popston popsicles in Second Ward on Sunday, June 5, 2022.
The menu board waits for flavors to be filled in at the soon-to-open storefront for Popston popsicles in Second Ward on Sunday, June 5, 2022.
A pair of popsicles at the soon-to-open storefront for Popston in Second Ward on Sunday, June 5, 2022.
Raul Figueroa brings out a pint of Popston’s Rocky Rodeo ice cream at the soon-to-open storefront in Second Ward on Sunday, June 5, 2022.
Jonathan Delgado with one of his popsicle carts inside of the soon-to-open storefront for Popston popsicles in Second Ward on Sunday, June 5, 2022.
Houston-inspired stickers cover on of Jonathan Delgado’s popsicle carts inside of the soon-to-open storefront for Popston popsicles in Second Ward on Sunday, June 5, 2022.
Jonathan Delgado shows off several flavors and a few collaborations of popsicles as he perfects different recipes at the soon-to-open storefront for Popston popsicles in Second Ward on Sunday, June 5, 2022.
Popston popsicles in Second Ward on Sunday, June 5, 2022.
Jonathan Delgado holds one of the uniquely shaped popsicle molds at the soon-to-open storefront for Popston popsicles in Second Ward on Sunday, June 5, 2022.
Jonathan Delgado and Raul Figueroa show off several flavors and a few collaborations of popsicles at the soon-to-open storefront for Popston popsicles in Second Ward on Sunday, June 5, 2022.
Jonathan Delgado walks through the back door of the soon-to-open storefront for Popston popsicles in Second Ward on Sunday, June 5, 2022.
Popsicles line trays at the soon-to-open storefront for Popston popsicles in Second Ward on Sunday, June 5, 2022.
Jonathan Delgado shares his dreams of the community he wants to build with popsicles at the soon-to-open storefront for Popston popsicles in Second Ward on Sunday, June 5, 2022.
A bin of popsicle sticks at the soon-to-open storefront for Popston popsicles in Second Ward on Sunday, June 5, 2022.
Popsicle mogul Jonathan Delgado and foodie Raul Figueroa outside of the soon-to-open storefront for Popston popsicles in Second Ward on Sunday, June 5, 2022.
Popsicle mogul Jonathan Delgado outside of his soon-to-open storefront for Popston popsicles in Second Ward on Sunday, June 5, 2022.
Hot Houstonians who have happened upon a frozen dessert cart shaded by a large rainbow umbrella in recent years have been rewarded with a trip around the world.
There’s Mr. Tan’s Dragon, a flavor inspired by a Vietnamese security guard who gave the cart’s owner, Jonathan Delgado, dragonfruit from his backyard. There’s an ice pop that resembles stained glass, with slices of kiwi, strawberry and mango suspended in the frosty white puree of soursop — a food, sometimes called the fruit of a thousand flavors, popular in his wife’s native Colombia. Even the carts hail from abroad. After Delgado started the business with a plastic red cooler, a custodian at the Museum of Fine Arts who sometimes bought his pops offered to help him secure the metal paleta carts popular in Mexico, shipping them in from Michoacán.
Soon, Popston, which has operated since 2016 as a fleet of frozen pop carts, will open its first brick-and-mortar in Houston’s East End. Delgado said the store should open at 3401 Harrisburg Boulevard in the coming weeks, as soon as it clears all necessary red tape. The menu will offer an enthusiastic, freewheeling tribute to Houston’s people and culture.
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Several flavors and a few collaborations of popsicles at the soon-to-open storefront for Popston popsicles in Second Ward on Sunday, June 5, 2022.
The menu board waits for flavors to be filled in at the soon-to-open storefront for Popston popsicles in Second Ward on Sunday, June 5, 2022.
Already, Delgado said, he’s created a flavor based on the Houston bakery Shipley Donuts (featuring Shipley’s glazed donuts mixed with cajeta, or Mexican caramel) and is in talks with the artist behind the “Be Someone” mural about collaborating on a flavor (it will likely be the same blue as the graffiti).
“I want the flavors to be Houston, things that people know,” Delgado said.
Popston was founded in 2016, shortly after Delgado was laid off from his job as a parts salesman for a reefer (short for refrigerated container) company. His wife urged him to take the setback as an opportunity to pursue a longstanding dream — opening a frozen pop shop.
His grandmother in El Salvador had once sold pops, but he wanted to create recipes that would do Houston’s foodie scene justice. He went to the now-shuttered Half Price Books in Montrose to buy books on frozen pops, smoothies and cocktails, and he reached out to an ice cream maker that had once bought freezer parts from the his former employer. The ice cream maker set him up with some equipment, and soon he was pushing a cart between the Medical Center, Museum District and Hermann Park.
Jonathan Delgado shows off several flavors and a few collaborations of popsicles as he perfects different recipes at the soon-to-open storefront for Popston popsicles in Second Ward on Sunday, June 5, 2022.
Today, his small staff of part-time employees are all friends he’s made selling frozen pops. On Sunday, Raul Figueroa, a teacher and self-described foodie who spends his free time working with Popston, was helping Delgado ready for the opening.
They had met in the summer of 2016, when Figueroa was Yelping desserts after dinner in the Museum District. When he pulled up Popston, he thought to himself that the frozen pops, which often showcase slices of fruit, were certainly Instagram worthy, but that he’d be the judge as to taste. After one pop, he transformed Popston’s hype man, passing time by the cart and cajoling passerby into having a taste.
Popsicles line trays at the soon-to-open storefront for Popston popsicles in Second Ward on Sunday, June 5, 2022.
After Hurricane Harvey destroyed Delgado’s home and damaged the Sheldon Independent School District elementary school where Figueroa worked, both poured themselves into the company.
“It’s a form of escapism,” Figueroa said. “And of creativity.” Recently, after returning from a trip to Mexico, he fashioned a new flavor of ice cream called Rocky Rodeo, in which chocolate, which is rooted in the country, is mixed with ancho, chipotle, morita, pasilla and guajillo chiles and topped with pop rocks.
Jonathan Delgado shows off several flavors and a few collaborations of popsicles as he perfects different recipes at the soon-to-open storefront for Popston popsicles in Second Ward on Sunday, June 5, 2022.
A pair of popsicles at the soon-to-open storefront for Popston in Second Ward on Sunday, June 5, 2022.
When Jeffrey Kaplan, who does leasing for the Plant on Harrisburg as one of its owners, called Delgado about opening a brick-and-mortar location in the East End, it marked the beginning of what Delgado hopes will be a new chapter for Popston.
His approach to the shop has been shaped by the pandemic. It will offer no indoor seating, instead selling its treats from a walk-up window. Its giant storefront windows will be used to let customers see fresh fruits being transformed into frozen pops, ice creams and other treats. “I think the kids will have fun watching,” Delgado said excitedly.
As he looked at the walls that will soon be transformed with Houston- and frozen pop-themed murals, he marveled at where life had taken him, saying his new career sometimes feels like a dream. He credited his success to the city his brand centers around: "What I like most about Houston is people like to see the little guy win."
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R.A. Schuetz covers housing for the Houston Chronicle. Before joining the Chronicle, she wrote features for the Hearst Connecticut Media Group.
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