Amid the bustle of downtown Gainesville, a new light blue shop sits quietly on the corner of University Avenue and Main Street.
In the window, a neon sign flashes the promise of fresh brewed coffee while a soft-serve vegan ice cream machine buzzes inside.
The Pop A Top Corner Store and Downtown Bodega is officially open for business.
The store, which sports a “downtown bodega” sign, is owned by The Top restaurant’s owners, Scott Shillington and Hal Mendez, and it officially opened its doors last week.
Taking the place of what used to be clothing store Soul Train Stops, the bodega was added with the goal of spicing up the area with a big-city feel, said Pop A Top manager Andrew Seward.
Seward said the idea of opening a bodega occurred to owners Mendez and Shillington while they were traveling in New York City.
“They were hanging out in Brooklyn a lot and fell in love with the idea,” he said. “This was just an empty storefront, and it was a perfect opportunity to put something like this here — downtown Gainesville needs more business and liveliness.”
Seward said the bodega differs from other convenience stores because it offers fresh food, an eclectic beer and liquor variety, and vegan soft-serve ice cream.
Though the bodega is new, Seward said the store already has regulars who shop there frequently and has proven a success among downtown workers.
“Like any business, it has waves,” he said. “There’s never parking downtown, so it’s a lot of foot traffic, but all the office workers downtown seem pretty excited about it.”
Pop A Top clerk Elizabeth McAlister agreed that the store’s location is prime.
“We have a lot of people coming in for coffee and lunch during the daytime,” she said. “I think on Friday and Saturday nights we’ll be successful when people are walking around downtown anyways…they might come across us that way.”
The store opens at 8 a.m. and closes at 10 p.m. However, McAlister said later closing times Thursday through Saturday and window services may be coming in the future.
Seward said that the objective for the bodega is to keep it thriving while maintaining reasonable prices in a friendly environment.
“One of the biggest goals is to have the food take off, get more and more unique beer and keep it really well-priced,” he said. “We want the place to be comfortable, and I think we’ve succeeded in that.”
A version of this story ran on page 1 on 8/22/2013 under the headline "Bodega pops up downtown"
Pop A Top Corner Store and Downtown Bodega set up shop on 2 E. University Ave. last week. Owners of The Top restaurant opened the corner store that offers beers, liquors and vegan soft-serve ice cream.
