In most areas, there is no shortage of quality fried chicken spots. You’ve got national chains making delectable fried chicken such as a Raising Cane’s, Bojangles, Chick-fil-A, and Popeye’s. Despite these being fast food chains, they do fried chicken just about as good as any fancy hometown restaurant. One woman loved Popeye’s chicken so much that she served it at her own restaurant. Then one savvy eater noticed that the chicken tasted an awful lot like Popeye’s and blew her spot.
A Yelp reviewer exposed a popular California restaurant for selling Popeyes chicken in their dishes that many assumed were homemade. The restaurant, which specializes in Southern fare, serves two fried chicken dishes – fried chicken and biscuits as well as chicken and waffles. Yelp user Tyler H., of Los Angeles, discovered that Sweet Dixie Kitchen in Long Beach was using Popeyes chicken in their dishes.
Tyler posted his revelation on a Yelp review:
Before my friends and I got seated we saw them quickly bring in two large boxes of Popeyes to the kitchen. I ordered the Chicken and Waffles to see whether or not they were serving Popeyes to their customers. I thought the chicken tasted suspiciously like Popeyes and was also rather stale. I kindly asked our waiter how they cooked their fried chicken. After checking he admitted that they do in fact use Popeyes.
Sweet Dixie Kitchen owner Kim Sanchez told Fox News that she has always been upfront with her customers as to where the fried chicken comes from. “We wrote it on our board in the restaurant, ‘Imported from Louisiana this week, thank you Popeyes.’ It wasn’t a secret. We use the chicken as an ingredient in a menu item we made, we don’t use their sauces or anything else.”
Yeah, those are definitely Popeyes chicken tenders.
And so are these.
Neither description of the two photos above mentions that the chicken came from Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen.
The restaurant serves a chicken and biscuits platter that is $12.95, but on their website it only says, “Fried chicken on buttermilk biscuit.” Nowhere does it say the chicken is from Popeyes. Also worth noting, after 10-15 minutes of sitting out, Popeyes fried chicken starts deteriorating in flavor and crispiness rather quickly.
Sanchez saw the Yelp review and not only owned up to the accusations, but was rather honored to serve fast food chicken in her establishment. “We PROUDLY SERVE Popeyes’ spicy tenders — the best fried chicken anywhere and from New Orleans — which are delivered twice a day,” Sanchez responded. “We also in case you need to know buy our gumbo from a friend who sells it at a local farmers market.”
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“We promote usually small batch local producers in our menu. The exception is Popeyes – we can’t fry at this location – and it the fried chicken I love so much and I ate a ton of it in the ATL. So I serve it,” she continued. Sanchez added that she had done her due diligence in finding the best fried chicken in the area to sell as her own. “I tried Costco chicken, I tried Restaurant Depot chicken, and then I went to dinner at Popeyes and knew this was the chicken we had to use for the store. It’s the best chicken,” she said. Give her a break guys, she tried Costco fried chicken and wisely selected Popeyes to sell at her restaurant.
Sanchez said the restaurant makes “roughly 95 percent” of the food they sell in-house and doubled down on her defense of repurposed Popeyes with a lengthy Facebook post.
Just be happy that nobody is serving KFC and passing it off as their own.
[FoxNews]