A few years ago, Garrett Popcorn entered Thailand, with a stand in Siam Paragon shopping mall in Bangkok. Now there are three locations in the capital. As usual when something new like this comes to town, the lines were out the door, people waiting a long time to buy this gourmet popcorn. (The same long lines happened when Krispy Kreme came here but have since wound down.) The lines were so long that we didn’t try it ourselves until picking up some in Singapore two years ago, where we saw it in a shopping center on Orchard Road, minus the long lines. I think we got a big container of Chicago Mix. Some sort of mix. Took us the whole rest of the trip to eat it.
And in honor of our 22nd wedding anniversary this week, the wife said she wanted some Garrett Popcorn. (The long lines are gone now, but the stuff is still popular.) Cheese Corn flavor. (We’ve not only got pretty much everything we want already, we’re having to jettison stuff now in preparation for our move back to Hawaii later this year, so we’re trying not to accumulate anymore stuff right now.) I was going to get the gallon tub, but the two-gallon tubs are on sale now for almost the same price, so I got two gallons. It’s pretty good, but damn, this is a lot of popcorn.
I got to wondering if Garrett really is big in Chicago. The tubs and other containers all say they’ve been there since 1949. So … is it big in Chicago? I’d never heard of them before they came here.
EDIT: And of course that should be “Garrett” in the thread title. I always miss something.
They have several stores in the downtown area, and they seem to have become a sort of staple of gift-giving, as well as being something that tourists seem to want to buy. I walk by one of the stores on my way from my office to the train every evening, and it usually has a line (especially during tourist season). I do think that the tin buckets are a big part of their positioning.
But, I don’t think that they’re as quintessentially Chicago as, say, deep-dish pizza, Chicago-style Vienna Beef hotdogs, or Italian beef sandwiches, and I don’t think that they’re nearly as well-known as those items outside of Chicago.
Garrett popcorn in Chicago has been around FOREVER – long before the store(s) became tourist destinations & before they had all the big cans and went “commercial”.
I love the stuff, but can’t/won’t get it by mail order. Part of the fun is hanging out in the Loop on a cold day & getting some
Garrett Popcorn is one of the very few tourist food traps that lives up to the hype. I don’t know what it is they do differently, but it’s some damn good popcorn.
I go to the one on 87th. Much shorter lines, and parking is easy, because it’s in the “bad” part of town.
I can’t remember the last time I had Garrett popcorn, but they do make damned good popcorn and the smell is just intoxicating as you pass their various shops in the Loop. It is extremely touristy, but , in my experience, it also has a solid reputation with the locals. I would call it one of Chicago’s iconic foods. “Chicago Mix” is caramel corn + cheese corn. That’s pretty much the only way I ever get it (although, like I said, it’s been awhile–I’m guessing around 10 years. I’m just not much of a popcorn eater.)
I don’t know if I’d call it “big” in Chicago. It’s here, everyone knows about it, and most people would consider it good stuff. But I’ve never seen a line at one of the stores. I have had visiting friends tell me that a trip to Garrett’s was on their agenda. I think it’s “bigness” is largely due to Oprah touting it on her show a few years ago.
The wife confirms that was Chicago Mix we had in Singapore two years ago.
You should have seen the lines when Garrett first opened in Bangkok, and not by tourists, by Thais who had never heard of it either. They just go crazy over that sort of thing here.
But I doubt anything could equal the hype of Krispy Kreme. When it opened its first outlet in Thailand, also in Siam Paragon, the line extended out the shopping center and way down the street. People were literally waiting four hours in line in the hot sun just for these doughnuts. And I think waiting four hours just got you into the mall doors, you still had to stand in line some more to get to the Krispy Kreme stand. Other fast-food stands were completely deserted, and all they could do was look on with envy at Krispy Kreme. But it’s a lot better now, the hype is over and you can just walk up and get some doughnuts.
Ben & Jerry’s is opening next month in Bangkok, two locations that I know of, in Terminal 21 shopping center and again in Siam Paragon, and they’re already predicting similar lines. We have Ben & Jerry’s packaged ice cream in Western-oriented supermarkets, but these will be the first actual shops.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. And next you’ll tell me it’s the Willis Tower and Cellular Field as well. I actually walked past one of the loop Garret’s on Monday and saw they have a smoky cheese flavor as well. I don’t know how new that is, but I was almost temped to pop in and try some. (I’ve only known the plain, cheese, and caramel varieties before.)
Mmmm. Now I’m hungry. Back in the late 90s, my boyfriend and I worked on opposite ends of the Magnificent Mile. I’d often walk to his office after work, and passing by Garrett’s was awfully tempting. I haven’t lived in there in almost 20 years and didn’t know they’d expanded outside of Chicago, but I always get some if I go through O’Hare.
Oh, man, I am a sucker for cashews and caramel. As a random aside, they have these sweet & salty caramel-granola bar things at Aldi and once in awhile, when the stars align just right, in addition to their standard peanut and almond varieties, a cashew variety appears. I have never been able to find more than two or three boxes at a time, though, and I find them maybe once every four or five months. I scour those shelves every time, going through about 50 boxes of almond and peanut each, hoping to find these elusive cashew bars. My last score was a couple weeks ago–found one at the front of the display, just teasing me, making me think there was a line of them behind, but, alas, no, just the singular cashew bar box. And then I found another that fell in between two columns of products. I’d buy a couple dozen boxes if I could, but I’ve never seen more than three boxes at a time.
Yeah, that puzzled me as well. I’ve never NOT seen a line at Garrett’s, and though I rarely go (typically when family was in town and wondered at the fuss) I passed locations in the Loop all the time and if I didn’t see a line, they were closed or closing up.
Well from my experiences in the city (and I may have to look into that location in 87th if the CTA bus route is near it (or better, near the Red Line)), I see more locations in Chicago than New York or Las Vegas, but I see it occasionally outside the city.
I actually walked past one of the loop Garret’s on Monday and saw they have a smoky cheese flavor as well. I don’t know how new that is, but I was almost temped to pop in and try some. (I’ve only known the plain, cheese, and caramel varieties before.)