New restaurant in Hattiesburg offers Southern-inspired tacos with pop culture flair

Do you want fries with that? One of Hattiesburg's newest restaurants is hoping you do.

Pop Taco recently opened in the former Hooters location at 101 Carlisle Drive. The restaurant offers a unique twist on tacos.

Imagine buffalo chicken, a cheeseburger or barbecued pork inside a soft tortilla served with a side of fries. Imagine a dining room filled with pop culture memorabilia and TVs showing some of your favorite pop songs. Combine the two and you get Pop Taco.

"Pop Taco is a pop music culture-inspired restaurant that I dreamed up and put together over the last decade or so after visiting larger markets with lots of cool, fun brands that we didn't really have around here," owner Frank McCool said during the restaurant's grand opening celebration Monday. "This is my attempt to recreate some of those features that I've seen, with a Southern-inspired taco menu."

Pop Taco is not a traditional Mexican restaurant, but an innovative restaurant serving up unconventional tacos that include toppings like pickles and bacon, and swapping out fries for the rice, beans and chips, the company said in a news release.

The restaurant is open 10:30 a.m. to 11 p.m. Sundays through Thursdays and 10:30 a.m. to midnight Fridays and Saturdays. The location offers a drive-thru window for convenience, but the full Pop Taco experience is more than just the food, so dining inside the restaurant is recommended.

"Pop Taco is a fast-casual style concept … adorned with multiple projectors playing both new and old 'pop'ular music videos," the news release said. "The Pop Taco promises an explosion of taste with its unique and flavorful take on everyone's favorite handheld meal."

What to know

Pop Taco, is located at 101 Carlisle Drive in Hattiesburg, the site of the former Hooters restaurant.

The venue serves Southern-inspired tacos with fries in a pop culture setting.

For more information, visit thepoptaco.com or call 769-223-6564.

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