Smith Family Popcorn
For the Smith family, the tradition was simple. Their yearly vacation to Ocean City, Maryland wouldn’t truly begin until they picked up a tin of popcorn for the week’s stay. Refilling the tin for the ride home to Sandwich completed the custom. It makes perfect sense, then, that it was Dan Smith and his wife Kim who brought Cape Cod, the land of saltwater taffy and fudge, its first gourmet popcorn. Since 2018, Smith Family Popcorn has been popping a full line, from sweet to savory, that continues to grow a zealous following.
Back in 2016, making popcorn was merely a rainy-day hobby for Dan and Kim in their Brookline apartment. Little did they know that they were creating the very line of popcorn that Smith Family Popcorn offers today. “There were months of screwing up caramel and ruining pots and pans,” Dan laughs at the memory. The pair finally hit on the right formula and packed it up as a housewarming gift for friends that very night. “We got tired of bringing bottles of wine to parties,” Dan remembers as he and Kim began to bring their homemade popcorn to friends’ gatherings. It wasn’t long before the requests for more began to roll in, and not just from friends. The hobby turned into a side hustle for Dan, who was an architect at the time, and Kim, who was (and still is) a pediatric nurse. The ordering progressed to baby and wedding showers, and corporate gifts. It was at this point that Dan realized he had something. “I knew it had legs to it,” He recalls.
Focusing all day on creating three-dimensional visualizations of architectural designs left Dan spent, and there wasn’t much left in the tank by the time he got home to focus on building a business. The architect in him knew what to do. He created a plan. The plan was to wake up two hours earlier every day (at 4am) for an entire year and use that time for developing his fledgling popcorn business. The goal was to have a brick and mortar location by 2018, and January first of that year saw the sledgehammers fly as Dan, Kim and his parents Libby and Phil began to break down the walls of their newly acquired storefront and production facility at 545 Main Street in Hyannis.
“We ran out of popcorn that first weekend,” Dan remembers with a shake of his head. Opening the doors to a retail business on Cape Cod on Memorial Day weekend is akin to joining the lead pack of cars midway through the Daytona 500 from a cold start. You fasten your seatbelt, hit the gas, and hang on for dear life. For the Smiths, they did just that and haven’t looked back since. This past June, Smith Family Popcorn opened a second location in Mashpee Commons. With the additional equipment, Dan can now dedicate a certain machine to make flavors like the Cape League Mix (with roasted peanuts and sunflower seeds) to keep allergens separate and protect people with food allergies.
“They’re all the same flavors we made in the apartment,” Smith explains. The lineup includes 13 flavors in all. From Birthday Cake and Cookies N’ Cream on the sweet end to the Taco or Tuscan Joy (garlic, basil, cracked sea salt and olive oil drizzle) on the savory side, there is a popcorn for all tastes and times of the day. The biggest seller? “That would be the Sea Salt Caramel,” Dan points out. After that, second place is a little too close to call. “All the other flavors sell exactly the same amount,” he marvels.
In just over two years, the company has grown to as many as sixteen employees during the busy seasons. Business in the summer season is predictably strong, but the holidays are at a different level. “Christmas and the holidays are twice as busy as the summer, and everybody wants their orders shipped at the same time!” Dan laughs. “The second week in December!”
The challenges of 2020 brought a need to make adjustments. A reworked website makes ordering online far easier for customers and growing the wholesale side of the business was key. Now you can find Smith Family Popcorn in stores around Cape Cod like Friends’ Marketplace in Orleans, Peterson’s in Dennis, Lambert’s and Guaranteed Fresh Produce. “The more we can diversify, the better,” Dan explains.
Nothing is overlooked in producing Smith Family Popcorn. One hundred percent coconut oil is used for flavors such as the Kettle Corn. Others use corn that is popped in the vortex popper. The air popper uses a vortex of super-heated air not only to pop the corn, but also eject it as soon as it is popped. The corn doesn’t linger a moment longer than necessary. And of course, the corn itself needs to be up to Smith family standards. “We use the mushroom type of popping corn because we’re so hard on the corn with all the mixing and blending that happens,” Smith says. The spherical mushroom type is much sturdier that the butterfly type you’ll find in microwavable packages or at movie theaters.
Smith Family Popcorn has elevated popcorn to something of a delicacy. It’s something to enjoy and feel good about it while you do. They donate a portion of the proceeds from every purchase to local non-profit organizations. Two are featured each week, and the customer gets to choose where their money goes. The company’s motto is “Good People, Great Popcorn.” An understatement on all counts.
