Now Open: Hippo Pockets by Centro

It’s been a long winter, and maybe the antidote is a blue hippo in a tracksuit.

The kids at Centro have been as bored as the rest of us, and giving truth to all the science that tells us how boredom is actually a superpower, their creative brains have come up with something fun: Hippo Pockets.

“We were all just sitting around and riffing on ideas,” Centro owner Jami Olson told me, “and we decided to honor the Crunch.” The Centro Crunch has a huge following locally, Olson told me it sometimes outsells margaritas. The restaurant’s playful take on a certain TexyMexy fast food company’s cr*nchwr#p is clearly just waiting for a Cease & Desist, so why not just poke the bell with a giant dancing hippo?

Hippo Pockets take the Crunch to higher heights. You can get the original, with all the proper taco fillings wrapped up in a tortilla and sealed like a sassy little envelope of meat and cheese, but now there are more versions. Please welcome the Chicken Bacon Ranch (above), Pepperoni Pizza, and a Philly version along with Chicken and Waffles, a breakfast crunch with eggs, and a Royal with Cheese for the burger lovers. There’s also a S’Mores crunch with chocolate and marshmallow.  

Now that you’re hungry, know that this is a cloud kitchen concept, for now. These tasty pockets are available only by delivery, ordering from the site or through Door Dash and Uber Eats. “We have so much space in the Eat Street location of Centro, we’re trying to figure out the best ways to use it. This is a way we can put energy into the space while we figure out if Hippo Pockets are a thing. We’ll be doing pop-ups all summer and hope that people love this idea as much as we do. Then who knows, maybe it becomes a stand somewhere, like in a ballpark or an airport. They definitely could end up in the freezer section of the grocery store. We just want to see how it goes.”

If you haven’t already clicked through to the site, there is a zany 90’s thing happening there. There’s lots of vibe. And yes, they had a blue hippo suit custom-made which is commitment. Besides the pockets and waffle fries, they are offering a menu of funky tea drinks, as well as some throw-back Capri Sun pouches and bottles of Yoo-hoo.

They did deliver* some to my office last week, and the consensus from the team was that it was a proper cure for actually being in an office. I housed the Royal with Cheese, and the Chicken Bacon Ranch was rightfully saucy AND crunchy, but it’s hard to deny the original.

Delivery starts at 4pm today, so plan your mood lifting accordingly! Lunch hours will be added soonish. And stay tuned to their socials for pop-ups and events where you, too, can hang with hippo friends. 

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*Unlikely that a blue hippo will actually be bringing your Hippo Pockets to your door, just to manage your expectations.