Pub popcorn:

Country Inn Hotel and Conference Center

Ginger Rogers and Fred Astaire. Salt and pepper. Popcorn and a beer. Some things just seem to go together.

Don’t walk into the Country Inn Hotel and Conference Center hungry. That’s because the smell of freshly popped popcorn emanating from Copper’s Pub and Grill will drive you crazy. The good thing, though, it’s available in a bag for carryout or customers can eat it in the pub.

What makes the pub’s popcorn so good? “It’s not too salty so you can’t eat it, but salty enough to make you drink,” says day bartender Betsy Boos. Boos ought to know. She’s been making the popular snack five days a week for the past 12 years. “I make it every day and when I’m not in, customers ask me where I was,” she says.

Boos uses Optima oil, which is 100 percent canola oil. The salt, a brand called Flavacol, is a special order. A brand of yellow popcorn seed called Goldmine makes the biggest kernels.

Although she doesn’t partake of the flavorful treat too often - “it’s addicting,” Boos says - she does think that Coppers offers some of the best pub popcorn. And so do her customers.