| Type | Soda Shop |
| Location | Riverdale |
| Owner(s) | Pop Tate |
| Featured in | Pep's Archie |
- “Would you care for a soda at Tate's?”
- ―Regular customer Archie Andrews offering an invite to Pop Tate's
Pop Tate's Chocklit Shoppe (aka Pop Tate's Malt Shop, Pop Tate's Teen-Canteen, the Choclit Shop, the Chok'lit Shop, or simply Pop's and Tate's) is a soda shop featured in the 1941 Pep Comics franchise, Archie by Bob Montana and John L. Goldwater where it served as the primary hangout of the comic's main characters, and having first appeared in the 1944 story titled "Christmas Cheers" from Pep Comics issue #46.
Overview
A typical day at the Chocklit Shop
The Chocklit Shoppe was the most popular teen hangout in the small town of Riverdale, beloved by its local teens for its great sodas, delicious ice cream, tantalizing burgers, groovy jukebox, and late night dance parties, as well as for its endearing owner Pop Tate who is considered a friend by local teens, and in return, Pop's treats his customers with fondness.
History
Regular customer Archie Andrews and Gabby the gossip enjoying a drink at Tate's before its remodeling
The Chocklit Shoppe was one of the more recognizable and older small businesses in Riverdale, and during its early years, it still maintained a very rustic interior design that truly reflected the turn of the century, with traditionally carved wooden furniture along its walls and an old world ambience while still featuring more modern glass tables and chairs. However, Pops would slowly replace his older furniture as his business grew and soda shops became more trendy among teens, particularly with a group of friendly goofballs known as Archie's Gang, led by Archie Andrews who had already been a regular at Pop's beforehand and was known for piling up an extensive tab.
The shop's growing popularity as soda shops became more trendy came with its drawbacks though, as Pop Tate found himself with too many teenage customers for his small shop to handle and who would treat his soda shop like a bowling alley with their constant ruckus and reckless antics, resulting in them accidentally breaking his tableware and leaving terrible messes in his shop too many times. For a brief time, these antics caused Pop Tate so much stress that it led to him banning teens from his shop altogether and closing it down, claiming that he would re-open it as an adult-only establishment.
However, as the kids found themselves with no place to hang out at, they resorted to using an empty and dilapidated store next to Pop Tate's which was being rented out by Archie's father, but sorry state of the store made hanging out there difficult, with things only getting worse as their teachers began showing up to their new hangout to act as their chaperones, making having fun even more difficult. This only grew worse when Archie's father revealed that the empty store had been rented out by an anonymous client, forcing him to reluctantly evict the kids. The solemn gang then cursed their sorry luck and wondered who rented the abandoned store as they moped in the street in front of Pop Tate's.
The grand re-opening of the more modern Choclit Shop
Some time would pass and eventually the grand opening of the rented store and the re-opening of Pop Tate's business took place on the same day as the members of the community, including Archie's Gang, watched on in curiosity. When the banners covering the front of the store's finally opened, it revealed that Pop Tate's and the empty store next door had been merged into one bigger soda shop that was for teens once more, now complete with rumpus room, more modern amenities, classier furniture, with the far larger space allowing more room for dancing and playing far from Pop's bar, thus keeping his tableware safe and the furniture more sparse to avoid breaking. The teens celebrated the re-opening of their new and improved hangout and thanked Pop Tate who felt sorry for the teens having to hang out in an empty store and deal with chaperones, however, local teen Reggie Mantle assumed Pop Tate did it for profits and praised him for his sneaky business tactics, but as Pop's turned away after Reggie's comment, he muttered to himself that he didn't do it for his business, having done so because he had been lonely without them.
Staff
Owner
- “Those kids are my bread and butter!”
- ―Pop Tate
Pop Tate, proprietor of the Chocklit Shoppe
Pop Tate is the manager and proprietor of his namesake soda shop who has faithfully catered to the soda-craving needs of Riverdale's teens since setting up his business.
Pop Tate is a friendly businessman who is very close to his teen customers, mainly Archie's Gang, considering them both friends and his "bread and butter", being the closest thing he has to family as he had no luck with women and therefore no kids of his own. Despite his fondness for the local kids, he will not let his favorite customers get in the way of business, always expecting them to pay their tabs accordingly and buy something while in his shop rather than loiter about for free. Regardless, he is still a wise older man and will offer words of wisdom when asked and teens have nowhere else to turn, but while still reminding them that they should at least buy something if they suddenly decided to leave without having bought anything, but nonetheless he will always do his best to help them out when in need.
Employees
Pop Tate has hired many of the local teens to work at his shop from time to time, mainly the kids of Archie's Gang led by Archie Andrews, with the most frequently employed members of the gang being Archie Andrews himself whenever he needs some extra cash, and more notably, Archie's best pal Jughead Jones who on occasions has found himself working at Pop Tate's to pay off his ever growing burger tab but usually ends up causing more harm than good as his appetite and laziness get the better of him.
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Menu
Food
An overly generous helping while at Pop Tate's
- Ice Cream
- Sundaes - Price: $0.35 or more depending on special orders
- Banana Split - Price: $0.15
- Shorten Sweet Special - Price: $0.12
- Double Whallop - Price: $0.25
- Christmas Special - Price: $0.40
- Chok'lit Chip Flip - Price: $0.25
- Burgers - Price: $0.10 to $0.25 or more depending on special orders
- Double Burgers - Price: $0.50
- Hot Dogs - Price: $0.05 to $0.10 or more with condiments and toppings
- Pizza - Price: $1.00
- Pickles
- Candy
Drinks
The consequences of having one too many ice cream sodas at Pop Tate's
- Plain Soda - Price: $0.05
- Ice Cream Sodas - Price: $0.10
- Milk Shakes - Price: $0.10
- Chocolate Shakes - Price: $0.15
- Double Frosted Chocolate Shakes - Price: $0.25
- Malted Milk - Price: $0.15
- Hot Chocolate - Price: $0.10
- Koka Kola - Price: $0.05
- Burpsi Cola - Price: $0.05
Trivia
Pop Tate's first three appearances
- In his first eight appearances after his debut in 1944, Pop Tate was depicted as a skinny and elderly man with white hair, but in Pep Comics issue #85 of 1951, he was redesigned into an overweight and middle-aged balding man with black hair and a small mustache and this would remain his permanent look, and although no formal explanation for the change was given, a few issues did rarely mention that Pop Tate's shop originally belonged to his father, suggesting that his original design may have been meant to be his father. Issue #85 would also be the start of the Chocklit Shop's more permanent look and of Pop Tate's more frequent appearances throughout the comic series as a supporting character.
- Pop Tate's Chocklit Shoppe is based on three real-life soda shops from the 1930s which operated in Haverhill, Massachusetts, the hometown of Archie co-creator Bob Montana. The name of these soda shops were "The Crown Confectionery", "The Chocolate Shop" on Merrimack Street and the "Tuscarora" on Winter Street, all of which were popular with teens during Montana's youth.