Mandi: I grew up in Mobile and moved to Los Angeles to be an actress–it pulls on your heart to go west and try. I didn’t know anyone and started working as a live-in nanny; I stayed in their cat room. 

Josh:  I was raised in Syracuse, NY. I’m the youngest of two brothers and a sister. We grew up singing in church and liked to sing. My brother suggested we form a band to sing and travel the world. 

Mandi. A boy band. They were Syracuse-famous

Josh: We had some success. We opened for Jessica Simpson and sang ‘America the Beautiful’ in front of Ray Charles.  We also moved to LA to become famous, but that never happened. 

Mandi: I had a few acting gigs and was an assistant to the assistant. It was very much “Devil Wears Prada.”  I met Josh in 2005, two weeks after he moved to LA. I was waiting tables. No matter what you do in LA, you are also waiting tables. 

Josh: My brothers and I were working across the street and went there to eat. This pretty southern girl walks up and says, “How y’all doing?” I called her “Bama” for at least a year. It was convenient to stop by there for lunch. So I went a lot. 

Mandi: I knew within the first few weeks that I was going to marry him. 

Josh: Thank God she knew. I’m a stupid boy: I realize it now. Thank God for strong-willed women who know what they want and are patient. 

Mandi: We got married and then conceived our daughter on our honeymoon. We couldn’t raise a child in LA, so we moved to Mobile for family support. I come from a family of business owners; Josh and I thought we would have more opportunities here. We’re dreamers with a lot of ideas and wanted to work together. 

My great-grandmother used to have fields in the back of her house. She would load the produce in her horse and buggy and take it to Prichard. My dad was in the wholesale produce industry for a long time, and I helped him. But our house on Mohawk Street in Mobile is why we have this business.

Josh: We cursed that house for being on a cut-through street. Then were laid off during COVID and had to do something. Our best idea was setting up a produce stand in our front yard and selling Chilton County peaches, sweet watermelon, and in-season produce that we could get from her uncle. 

Mandi: On the day we started, we put two ferns with the produce on a six-foot table, and I made a post about helping us pay our mortgage this month. It was embarrassing, but we were hustling, trying to pay our bills. 

Josh: That was also a beautiful time because everyone was outside. Families were walking together because they had nothing else to do. We thought our produce stand would be nothing or just last a few weeks. But it took off. People lined up early on the days we opened and knocked on our door on the days we weren’t. 

Mandi: We got to know neighbors all around us. Our produce stand grew into a drive-thru line; people were even coming from Fairhope. I was pregnant with our third daughter–in the Mobile heat–but people wanted us there. It was a human connection. When life started going back to normal, we had to figure out what’s next. I convinced Josh we should have a pumpkin patch and then sell Christmas trees because my uncle could get those, too. 

Josh: We had to move this out of our yard. A nearby building used to be a pawn shop and Ward’s Army Navy store. It was in foreclosure. They wouldn’t let us buy the building, but we could set up outside in the parking lot. We eventually got the building and moved inside. 2022 was our first Mardi Gras.

Mandi: We were selling by seasons–adding Mardi Gras was my dad’s idea. He loves working here. We named the store Pop’s Midtown because we began as a pop-up.  It’s also a tribute to the hardworking people in our lives.

Josh: We call her dad Poppi. His father was Papa. My dad was Poppa. Now everyone calls me Pop. 

Mandi: The name honors our family, but this building has so much tradition in Mobile. We are honored to be here and want to add to the connection.  We want to be part of the community. 

Josh: In a crazy way, this business has brought Mandi and me closer together. Everyone said don’t do business with your family. But if I put my heart, soul, sweat and tears into something, it might as well be with Mandi. We laugh a lot together, and she’s proven she’ll forgive me. 

Mandi: It’s easy to work with Josh. Anyone he encounters feels accepted, heard, and welcome. That’s why we love Mardi Gras; it brings everyone together. Shoulder to shoulder. It’s a time to forget the bullshit. 

(Pop’s Midtown will have a popup store during Mardi Gras in front of Dauphin Street Sound at 651 Dauphin Street. They will soon open a second location next to The Insider on Dauphin Street.)