POPS 66 Soda Ranch

POPS 66 Soda Ranch was designed by Oklahoma City architect Rand Elliott, whose firm Elliott + Associates Architects has become one of the most-awarded design practices in the central United States. Elliott's work across Oklahoma is characterized by clean modernist forms, dramatic use of natural light, and a deliberate dialogue with the surrounding landscape — qualities that all show up clearly in the POPS building. The decision to build a self-consciously modern structure on Route 66 was unusual; most new Route 66 development has leaned into nostalgia and vintage signage rather than contemporary architecture.

The building itself is a single-story glass-and-steel pavilion with a dramatic cantilevered canopy extending out over the gas pumps. The canopy is the building's most architecturally significant element — a thin floating plane that appears to hover above the fuel islands without visible support from certain angles. The interior is essentially one open volume with the soda coolers along one long wall, the counter and kitchen on the opposite wall, and casual seating in between. Floor-to-ceiling glass on multiple sides floods the space with natural light during the day and makes the building glow from the inside after dark.

The 66-foot bottle was commissioned as a separate sculptural element from the building itself but designed in coordination with the architecture. The bottle's steel structure is engineered to withstand Oklahoma's substantial wind loads — a non-trivial design challenge given the state's tornado history — and the LED lighting system was custom-programmed for the property. The combination of the modernist building and the iconic bottle has earned POPS multiple architectural awards and substantial press coverage since opening, including features in national architecture publications.

The soda selection is what keeps POPS interesting on repeat visits. The glass-front coolers along the long interior wall hold over 700 different sodas at any given time — the inventory rotates as seasonal releases come and go and as new craft producers reach distribution in Oklahoma. The categorization is loose but generally helpful: root beers and cream sodas are grouped together, colas occupy a section, ginger ales and ginger beers sit in their own area, fruit sodas are color-coded by flavor, and the international and novelty sections occupy the most-photographed end of the wall.

The novelty section is the destination feature for first-time visitors. Bacon soda, pickle soda, buffalo wing soda, ranch dressing soda, sweet corn soda, peanut butter and jelly soda, and dozens of other deliberately odd flavors are stocked in single-bottle quantities and rotated as supplies allow. Most novelty sodas are produced by Lester's Fixins or Avery's, two specialty producers that have built a market exclusively in novelty flavors. Tasting a few is a Route 66 rite of passage for many visitors, though almost nobody finishes the bottle.

Beyond the novelties, the wall holds serious craft soda offerings — small-batch root beers from regional producers, glass-bottle Mexican Coca-Cola (which uses cane sugar rather than corn syrup and tastes noticeably different from American Coke), IBC root beer in nostalgic brown bottles, ginger beers ranging from mild to genuinely spicy, and an extensive section of international imports including German citrus sodas, British dandelion-and-burdock, and Japanese ramune sodas with the iconic marble-stoppered bottles. Bottles run roughly $2 to $4 each depending on rarity and import status.

The restaurant side of POPS operates as a full diner with breakfast, lunch, and dinner service. The menu is straightforward American diner fare executed at higher-than-expected quality — gourmet burgers with hand-formed patties, fries cut in-house, milkshakes made with real ice cream, and breakfast plates served from opening at 6am through mid-morning. Per-person spend is typically $12 to $25 depending on what you order. The restaurant is genuinely family-friendly with high chairs available and a kids' menu that runs $6 to $9 for a kid-sized burger, hot dog, or chicken tenders plus a side and a drink.

The pairing concept is part of the experience. The counter staff actively encourages customers to choose a soda from the wall to pair with their meal — a Mexican Coke with the cheeseburger, a craft root beer with the patty melt, a ginger beer with the BBQ burger, or one of the novelty sodas as a conversation piece. The pairing recommendations are not enforced or expensive (the soda is purchased separately from the food and most cost about the same as a fountain drink), but the soda-with-meal pattern is what distinguishes the POPS dining experience from a generic diner.

Milkshakes are made with hand-scooped ice cream and served thick — thick enough that a straw struggles to draw them and most customers end up eating them with a spoon. Flavors rotate seasonally beyond the standard chocolate, vanilla, and strawberry; pumpkin spice in fall, peppermint in winter, and various fruit-forward summer flavors typically appear. The milkshake is the recommended dessert for first-time visitors, and many customers end up ordering one even after a full meal.

POPS is open daily from 6am to 9pm — long enough hours to function as breakfast, lunch, or dinner stop depending on your Route 66 schedule. The gas pumps operate during the same hours and accept standard credit cards. Parking is plentiful in the large surrounding lot, and the property is set up to handle RVs and tour buses in addition to cars. Restrooms are clean and well-maintained — POPS has become a popular pit stop for road-trippers regardless of whether they're stopping to eat.

The most popular visiting time is dusk and early evening, when the LED bottle is illuminated against the darkening sky and the photography is at its best. Arriving 30 to 45 minutes before sunset gives you time to order food, eat, and then walk outside as the bottle lights up. Many photographers plan their Oklahoma City to Tulsa Route 66 drive specifically to time the POPS stop with sunset. Daytime visits are perfectly worthwhile too, but the bottle is most impressive at night.

The natural Arcadia plan is to combine POPS with the Round Barn just down the road — the two are the town's only major attractions and are typically visited together as a single 90-minute to 2-hour Route 66 stop. Most visitors do the Round Barn first (it's smaller and quicker, 30-45 minutes), then come to POPS for a meal and the soda wall (45-90 minutes including time at the bottle). Arcadia sits about 25 miles northeast of Oklahoma City and 10 miles north of the Edmond suburb, making it an easy day-trip from either base.