The Super Bowl is almost upon us, and for many, it ranks right up there with Thanksgiving as an opportunity to overeat.

Next Sunday, viewers all over the country will gorge on nachos, beer, and pigs in blankets while they pretend to watch football. If the folks at Dale and Thomas have their way, they will also load up on popcorn.

The fast-growing company is peddling nifty Super Bowl gift packs loaded with popular popcorn flavors. They even include a bowl, for people who might have blown all their money on a bigscreen TV.

For those with inadequate olfactory nerves or distant addresses, Dale and Thomas is a gourmet popcorn vendor that attracts passers-by to its stores by that most familiar of smells, popcorn. Once inside, customers are tempted by an exotic array of flavors, including peanut butter and white chocolate drizzle and Southwest Cheddar chipotle. Usually, they leave with one or two bags of freshly popped corn and a wallet that’s lighter to the tune of $5 to $7.

For the past four years, the management of the start-up venture has been building the line, selling through stores in malls and in cities such as New York, as well as through its Web site and wholesale outlets.

The folks at Dale and Thomas, like entrepreneurs across the land, have been searching for the next Starbucks — the next consumer product that could be sold on every street corner and become part of America’s daily routine.

The head coach of the New York Knicks, Isiah Thomas, made that leap long ago. Mr. Thomas apparently grew up with a different sort of food pyramid in his head; he consumes popcorn on a daily basis.

The story goes that Mr. Thomas was working at a press event in Times Square one day and sent his handlers out to find popcorn. They returned with a bag from Dale and Thomas, then called Popcorn, Indiana.

Mr. Thomas was so impressed that he set up a meeting with the company’s management, and before long he became a backer. He also lent the fledgling company his name. Dale Humphrey turns out to be a town father of Popcorn, Indiana. Celebrity popcorn?

The president of the wholesale division of Dale and Thomas, Richard Demb, has been there since the beginning. He has great expectations for Dale and Thomas, in part because the product is easy to sell.

“People have an emotional connection with popcorn,” he says. “They smell it as they walk down the street and knock on our door.”

The challenge has been to translate that established appetite — Americans eat an astonishing 54 quarts a year on average — into a viable business. “There was no blueprint,” he says. “We had to start from scratch.”

That included working with machinery manufacturers to come up with popping equipment capable of handling large volumes. At the company’s 13 stores, the kitchens are fully exposed and all the cooking is done on the premises. In New Jersey, where the company has its headquarters, the kitchens have tooled up for a sizable expansion to feed the fast-growing wholesale demand.

Like any savvy retail group, the owners of Dale and Thomas have added as much buzz as they have salt and cocoa. A graduate of the Culinary Institute of America, Ed Doyle, has been deemed the world’s “first popcorn chef” and has appeared on the “Today ” show. Katie Holmes and Johnny Depp are fans, and the line has even been touted in O, the Oprah magazine.

The founders of Dale and Thomas have protected the brand by selling only through high-end boutiques and hotels and developing a second line called Popcorn, Indiana for the mass market. Just recently, they launched a third line, Movie Theater Popcorn, sold with retro-style black and white packaging.

The development of what Mr. Demb calls “guardrails” for the original gourmet line has been prompted by large-volume vendors such as Costco, which have come looking for distribution rights. The less expensive and more generic products allow the company to serve organizations such as Shea Stadium and the movie chain National Amusements without sacrificing its quality image.

As Dale and Thomas is developing its product lines, it’s also experimenting with different retail concepts. The early outlets, such as the original at Broadway and 63rd Street in New York, were small and featured only takeout. In November, the company opened a much larger store in Wellington, Fla., that includes seating and even space for parties.

“The beauty of popcorn is that there is a social element,” Mr. Demb says. “There’s a shareability about popcorn. This is a fun new environment where people can gather — not in a bar or a basement.”

Is the product that good? Mr. Demb recently received this email message: “Our entire store of 100+ employees is addicted to your kettlecorn! We eat them before, during and after lunch and we sneak bags onto the sales floor.” Other e-mails confirm that people cannot get enough of the stuff.

What is the vision? Over the next five years, Mr. Demb wants to build a national presence and to become the go-to brand. He points out that his company has hired an ex-Starbucks executive to run its retail operations. Revenues per square foot for the kiosk-type stores could be competitive with those generated by the coffee chain, he says.

Could popcorn be the next coffee?

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