When Kellogg's opened a Pop Tarts store in Times Square it received a lot of media fanfare. The store offers a number of odd confections including Pop Tarts sushi (crumbled Pop Tarts wrapped around a Fruit Rollup) and Ants on a Log (a celery stalk with peanut butter and crumbled Pop Tarts mixed in). Unsurprisingly, the backlash has already begun. In perhaps the most positive review, The Awl said "It was like eating fridge magnets. In a good way." Pastry chef Ashton Warren said, "It's not bad, but it's not good, either...The texture is all wrong. You get the crunch, but there shouldn't be a crunch when you're eating a fruit roll-up." With a damning assessment, a commenter at Serious Eats writes "I don't know how this could be so much worse than the sum of its parts, but it was. Chalky and powdery and, frankly, vile. The extra fruit filling, maybe? Edibility, 1-10: 0. I physically could not bring myself to swallow."

And then there's Fox News' Shep Smith, who simply doesn't like the idea of a Pop Tarts store in Times Square: "Pop Tarts now has a store in Times Square Pop Tarts, crossroads of the world. Pop Tarts…I say we bring back the porn stores."

(Hat Tip: Gawker)

Want to add to this story? Let us know in comments or send an email to the author at jhudson at theatlantic dot com. You can share ideas for stories on the Open Wire.
John Hudson