20220630-HOWARDMAGAZINE - Flipbook - Page 14
HIGHLIGHT
BY MICHA GREEN Howard Magazine
E.C. Pops co-owner Lance Sovine serves customer Claire Bowen. The Ellicott City store offers more than 60 flavors of popcorn. PHOTOS BY MICHA GREEN
Tongue twister
Colorful and whimsical E.C. Pops offers funky popcorn flavors and fun
Lance Sovine and Doug Yeakey started E.C. Pops with
two goals: help rebuild Old Ellicott City after the 2016
flood and bring gourmet popcorn to the area. But since
opening in 2017, the two offer much more than snacks —
they provide food, fun and a familial space.
“We’re an all inclusive, all welcoming, safe place for
everyone,” said Sovine, 50, before running to attend to
customers shopping.
With over 60 flavors of popcorn such as Old Bay, birthday cake, backyard bacon barbecue and a summer pie
series; cookies and cream, chewy praline and more kinds
of fudges; flavored sodas like dirt and grass; Maryland
merchandise; and classic toys like Lite-Brites, people
come to E.C. Pops for entertainment and leave feeling
like family.
14 | SUMMER 2022 | howardmagazine.com
“It just has a really good vibe. They have all kinds of
things that are special [that] I wouldn’t get anywhere
else, because you wouldn’t find them in other places,”
said Claire Bowen, of Columbia, who was visiting E.C.
Pops for the first time on the recommendation of her
parents.
Though E.C. Pops has become a beloved Old Ellicott
City business, Sovine and Yeakey, who will have been
together for 30 years in November, originally came to
the area for a totally different reason than popcorn and
entrepreneurship.
“I worked for Walmart for 35 years and my job
transferred me down here. And Lance, my husband, also
worked for Walmart and when we came down, I was over
a large geographic area of the Mid-Atlantic area, so he