Pocono Talk

I know I know, if you like Olive Garden you’re darn excited, if you don’t then you’re probably thinking “seriously, another eatery?”.  It opens this Monday, March 23rd at 4pm in Stroudsburg in the Best Buy/Old Navy/Panera Bread shopping center.  For the first week it will only be open for dinner starting at 4pm, the following week they should be open for their regular lunch/dinner schedule.

Just a few years ago the strip of 611 from the Crossroads to Main Street Stroudsburg was a lot quieter.  Crossroads (not to be confused with the crossings) use to be a highly trafficked area for truckers as an active truckstop/rest area.  Over the past few years the area across from the main truck stop has become a retail center that contains a Lowes, Kohls, Chilis, Red Robin and Longhorn Steakhouse. In process where the truckstop there is a Red Lobster, AT&T and Giant supermarket going in.

Heading towards Stroudsburg there’s a strip mall going in on the left that so far just contains a Dunkin Donuts(imo you can’t go wrong with a few more DD’s).  If you keep going you’ll see that where there use to be trees(if you haven’t visited in awhile you’d probably be shocked) there’s clearing after clearing making way for who only knows…When you get almost into town that’s where the Olive Garden is going – it’s a relatively new shopping center with an Old Navy, Borders(I think), Best Buy, Five Guys Burgers, Panera Bread and Five Below.  Due to the economy both the Starbucks and Linens and things are already gone.  Sidenote – KB toys and Waldenbooks in the Stroud mall have also fallen to the times.

Personally, I like having the options and would love to see an Outback Steakhouse go in as well(I know with Longhorn and Texas Roadhouse opening not too long ago it’s not that needed but I still love me some Outback).

The way I see it is the Poconos are changing – they had their shining moment years ago of resorts and celebrities and over the years that has greatly faded.  It feels like the area is getting overcrowded at times, which honestly I think it is, but if it’s going to build up I’d rather see some larger companies coming in then just strip malls of lousy stores.  Extra people means extra traffic, extra crime(the shootings lately are getting more absurd/frequent), and less trees…but in the economic downfall we’re going through should anyone really complain that there’s more jobs being created and more tourists coming which in the end means more money all the way around.

Last weekend was unusually warm for March in the Poconos (above 60 degrees) and after being holed up inside all winter we were more then ready to get out for some weekend fun.  My son was dying to play outside but the warm weather had caused all the snow to melt making our yard and the local parks one big mudfest.  My husband and I decided some indoor fun might be a better choice and after some thoughts we decided we would see what local factories would be open for the day for tours.  We considered a candle factory, which we’ve visited before, but decided on Callie’s Candy Kitchen and Pretzel Factories which would be both new and yummy.

Located in Mountainhome, PA it was a short trip for us and although it might be a bit of a drive for some it was definitely a fun time.  We visited the Pretzel factory first – having visited the Snyders factory in the past I had invisioned some huge building and wasn’t disappointed but semi-surprised that the pretzel factory was on such a smaller scale.  We walked in and you could see the pretzel making process right there – we went at about 11am so there was no one there but us.  My 5 year old was really excited to see the pretzels enter the oven and kept running around and coming back to see if they had finished cooking(they were slowing cooking on a conveyor belt).

They had a section of “left handed gifts” like a left handed spiral notebook for people like my husband who are always complaining “you right handed people have no idea how difficult it is to write in a spiral notebook”.   They had a large variety of pretzels(of course) both hard and soft and every color & flavor of popcorn that you could imagine (my son got the tutti frutti that is show in the picture).  One of the employees showed us how all of the different pretzels were made – he some dough and made a standard pretzel, their pretzel on a stick, and a funnel cake pretzel.  On our way out we all bought our choice of pretzels – I went with the soft pretzel on a stick(it just looked fun), my son got the funnel cake pretzel, and my husband got a standard soft preztel all of which tasted great.

We headed up the street to Callie’s Candy Kitchen which was about 5 minutes away.  They had your standard variety of candy, chocolate, fudge, holiday candy, etc. but they also had a huge variety of different candies as well.  There was a wall of chocolate molds you could buy (the ones you melt discs into) in probably 100+ varieties – so if you’re looking for a ski boot/skis mold or something for a special occasion like a baptism you’re sure to find it there.  There were premade chocolates from molds in all the current kids characters like spongebob, transformers, hannah montana, etc.

After walking around for a bit we spoke with Mr. Callie who said he would be doing a presentation in a bit.  Callie’s Candy Kitchen was established in 1952 and it’s amazing to see that he still is so passionate about candy all these years later.  Mr. Callie not only explained how the candy and chocolates are made – but about the simplicity of business and marketing.  How many different types of chocolate are there? 1.  How many different types of Ice Cream are there? 1.  It’s Ice Cream…not Ice CreamS.  That all probably makes no sense, but if you sit down with “The Candyman” he will be sure to tell you all about it.

Oh…and there were samples in the store and a bunch after the presentation – needless to say I had my fill by the time we got out of there!  So if you’re looking for an inexpensive(or even free if you don’t buy anything) trip this year be sure to stop by Callie’s – it’s definitely “old school” but unique, true to the Poconos and most importantly yummy!