Summer innovation key to Pope’s Drive In

HAMIOTA — Chances are if you live north of the Trans-Canada Highway in southwestern Manitoba, you’ve heard of Pope’s Drive In.

Located on the corner of Highway 21 and Maple Avenue in the community of Hamiota, Pope’s has become synonymous with summer in the region, with customers coming from miles around — often between swimming and sports games — to enjoy a fresh-made hamburger, a chicken salad sub, and of course a little ice cream.

But the thing with Pope’s is that it keeps you guessing — thanks largely to the creativity of their teenage staff who bring fresh ideas to the menu every week.

“The way to make this work is to follow the kids. All we have, they’re all 17 and under inside right now. No adults,” said Jason Pope, who co-owns the seasonal business with his wife Tammy Pope.

The couple currently employ 10 local teens in the business in both part-time and full-time seasonal employment. And both Tammy and Jason say the energy that the teenagers bring to the business every year keeps the menu innovative, and keeps their customers coming back.

“The kids bring smiles,” Tammy said. “They need the experience. It’s hard for them to get a job if they have no experience. But the biggest thing is to build a standard, and watch the kids learn, watch them figure out how to be kids and be an employee. They bring a lot of smiles to our face.”

Like most drive-ins that dot the landscape in western Manitoba, you’ll find the old standbys on the entrée and sides menu that are always a crowd pleaser — onion rings, French fries, hot dogs and burgers with the works. Pope’s has a specialty burger as well — the Pope Burger for $10.50 that’s loaded up with cheddar cheese, fried onions and the Pope’s special sauce.

The Mexi Dog, which includes a large wienie topped with cheddar cheese, taco meat, salsa and green onions for $8, is tasty but messy fare. Make sure to keep the dog wrapped in the foil it comes in, or be prepared to have it fall apart on your lap.

Pope’s also offers summer favourites like waffle fries for $7 and chicken ranch poutine made with chicken gravy and homestyle fries for $12. The battered mushrooms are delicious, and come with ranch dressing as a dip for $9.

But it’s the drinks and ice cream where Pope’s youthful innovation really shines. For example, one of the newest items on the Pope’s Drive In menu are so-called dirty sodas, which are essentially a soda beverage that has been customized with flavoured syrups and the addition of cream to the mix — that’s where the “dirty” comes in.

According to the interwebs, the dirty soda has become particularly popular in the U.S. state of Utah among the Mormon community where they were seen as an alternative to alcoholic drinks.

“We’ve never personally heard of them,” Tammy said, “but the kids follow TikTok and they follow all those … So they came to us the one day and said, ‘Hey, can we start doing them?’ I’m like, ‘Well, what are they?’ and so they brought us a bunch of samples. And we’re like, ‘Wow, those are really good!’”

Currently, Pope’s has four flavours to choose from, including Baja Blast, Peach Sunrise, Dr. Pope and Cherry Bomb.

The kids also came up with a new item on the menu — The Shareable — that allows customers to choose three items from a list of mozzarella six, pickle spears, japaleno fiesta and battered mushrooms for $24.

“They basically came up with a platter of all our appetizers,” Tammy said. “It’s kind of nice when their brains click and they start working as a team. They come up with these things as a team, not just one person individually, but they all kind of have their input. It’s kind of neat.”

But if you ask the staff at the order window what their best item is, they’re going to tell you it’s the Pope’s parfaits, which change throughout the summer as the teens come up with new concoctions.

Last week’s flavour of the week was the Cookie Monster parfait — vanilla soft serve ice cream topped with blue raspberry cone dip, crushed Oreo cookies and chocolate sauce. It’s a big ice cream treat, that screams the Cookie Monster character of your childhood.

Both business people by trade, Tammy and Jason decided to come back to Hamiota to get away from the busy life in Brandon. It just didn’t quite turn out as they planned — and that’s alright.

“We left Brandon to retire out here, to slow down and take time to ourselves. Get away from the speed in the angry part of the world. And then, for some crazy reason, this came up for sale, and being around the kids … we did it,” Jason said.

“We like it. It’s definitely a lot. It’s a lot of work, and takes away from our summer. That’s for sure,” Tammy said. “We needed something to bring a smile to our face, and we thought this would, and it did.”

The couple have owned and operated Pope’s Drive In for the last four years, though the business itself has been a community staple in Hamiota since the late ‘50s or early ‘60s.

And while their summers are certainly busier than they first imagined when they came back to the community, they have no complaints.

“We basically gave up our summer. We did,” Jason said. “I was into hunting and fishing, and she was into fishing, and we had our cabin. We had our summer lives, but this place took it away. And that’s good. We’re happy. It’s just nice seeing the smiles on people’s faces.”

“Especially kids,” Tammy adds. “When their eyes light up and they see their bright blue ice cream cone, and they look at you five minutes later, and it’s all over them.”

If you’re in the mood for a road trip down to Hamiota this summer, you’d better be quick — the season may be coming to a close in early September this year.

» mgoerzen@brandonsun.com

» Bluesky: @mattgoerzen.bsky.social