Bob: Yes, you are totally correct re Popeyes Fried Chicken Sandwich! THEY KILL!! We travel 20 minutes north of our home to the nearest location in Canoga Park and upon entry to "the line", we get those WTF are you doing here looks! Furthermore, the people working there should be working some other place where giving a crap doesn’t matter! And, in closing, The Popeyes sandwich beats the hell outta going to Jersey Mikes Steak joint, ordering a large philly-steak sandwich and opening the bun to try to find the meat! Madone!

Jerry Sharrell

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Although I have not tried Popeye's new chicken sandwich, I can probably say that it won't impress me because I don't care for Popeye's chicken. To me, it's more breading than it is chicken!

Kentucky Fried Chicken -ORIGINAL - will ALWAYS be the BEST!! Unfortunately, their stores are rapidly disappearing; many have teamed with Taco Bell and / or Pizza Hut, so there is still some hope. Here in Philly, there aren't many left; sometimes I even have to drive to the suburbs. But I'll be buying it until it's gone (and Bob, you were NEVER more right about that Cole slaw!).

The only other chicken that could even get an honorable mention was that from Chicken George, from Church's Chicken, and from Roy Rogers (big surprise) -- all of which, except from Roy Rogers, are long gone.

As a side note, if you remember the commercials for Kentucky Fried Chicken from back in the day, Colonel Sanders was always a person with dignity as he plugged his delicious fried chicken. Nowadays, the commercials treat him like a joke -- he was NEVER that. How sad this is. Welcome to the many disappointments and humiliations of the present day.

Marie Davenport

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Diane’s mom, Martha Jean “The Queen” Steinberg (Google her) had a friend who owned a Pioneer Chicken franchise in the valley and we used to get free buckets from”Bobby” to feed our young family. Swanson’s is a perfect comparison. Greasy, encrusted, cocktail party appetizer level. Nasty !
(But the price was right)
Kenny Lee Lewis

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Went to our local Popeye’s yesterday - sign at the drive-thru said that sammy would "be back soon" - I queried Joseph and he told me the whole story, complete with meme citations.

HOWEVER, I left when the order-taker told us our order would "be a while"; maybe it’s just this one Colfax location, but the endless wait, even to order, was once too often after a couple years of slow, sloppy service. Not goin’ back.

John Hughes

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My teenage sons are fast food chicken experts. They have not sampled the new Popeyes yet, but they swear by Chick-fil-A.

Jon Healey

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There are lines, even at the drive thru, and I'm still waiting to speak to someone who has actually eaten this little bit of heaven.

Chick-fil-A sucks but the sandwich is pretty good. Popeye's is good but you can't get in the store to try the sandwich. Guess I'll eat a salad and read about it.

Jim Warren

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Fast food has never had as much buzz online as it has now. It seems like it’s become a weekly occurrence that the entirely of the internet fixates on a new menu offering from one of the top dogs amongst the national fast food chains. This online discourse increasingly drives sales, never more so than the Beatlemania surrounding the Popeye’s chicken sandwich. Perhaps it’s because fast food provides a sense of comfort and regularity to our fragmented and chaotic modern timeline. People need comfort more than anything these days, and delicious, cheap and universally available food provides it more than any form of art at this point in time.

Mike Kilfoyle

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The Pioneer chicken just north of Pico and Westwood across from Juniors was awesome in the 60's and 70's. Tough choice between Hickoryburger at Apple Pan or Pioneer Chicken

santa rosa art

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I think Popeye's stinks.

First visit, takeout at request of my elderly mother. Order fouled up. Second visit, asked for a shrimp special advertised on a banner outside the joint. "That's not until next week." There's no dates on the banner. Third visit, again for my mother. I showed the guy at the counter what I wanted from an ad. Order fouled up.

My sister tried to get their basic chicken on Mother's Day. 11:30 am. "Sorry, we don't have any chicken." It's a chicken place that just opened for the day. Parking lot nearly empty.

Not going back. Maybe the other locations have competent management but I don't intend to find out.

Chip Cox

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BTW, the sandwich is awesome.

David Murphy

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Btw, the sandwich IS that good. Of course we’ve had it. Foodies have to have whatever the new food is first, like in the must- have -that -new -album first, before anyone days. And now that Popeye’s delivers via pretty much all of the take out delivery services, we can have that sandwich brought to us. And so, we did. Yeah, the spicy is better.

Regards

Amy Krakow

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I liked that article about the Popeyes sandwich as well. That’s what we need in America. The highbrow crossing the street to meet the lowbrow.

Regardless. The better item at Popeyes is the red beans and rice side with a biscuit. Way better than chicken

And since you name checked all American burger. ( I remember )
Hit up Astro burger in weho. Will take you back

t g

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Funny you should mention this Bob, I came across this post from someone the other day and it was too good not to share:

“Okay let me break it down for the people who haven’t had a chicken sandwich from either Chick-Fil-A or Popeye’s.

Chick-Fil-A sandwich tastes like it was cooked by a white woman named Sarah who grew up around black people. The flavor is definitely there, but Sarah cares about your cholesterol so she’s careful about the breading and grease content.

Popeye’s sandwich tastes like it was cooked by an older black lady named Lucille that serves on the usher board and has 12 grandkids that call her "Madea". Madea don’t give a shit about your cholesterol because God’s in control.

I hope this helps.”

-Zach Ziskin

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Greetings from Popeyes at Washington square mall on MLK Blvd in Roxbury, Boston!

On a Sunday afternoon at lunchtime following church services, a Popeyes is filled with churchgoers, moms with kids, neighborhood teen-titans and twenty, thirty, forty, fifty somethings hip to the game, along with Washington square mall security (making rounds shaking their heads at sight of the long lines), and some new rare faces - Boston university and college bro’s and hipsters — who clearly have been following the IG memes, media storm, all packed in a car to follow their tastebuds to Popeyes in the hood, courtesy of iPhone Waze app directions “2 miles away / 20 minutes!”

But get this Bob, they don’t put signs in the front windows "sorry, our famous chicken sandwiches are sold-out!!!!!" Instead, they just make an announcement every five minutes and 1/3 of the line starts cursing, ‘OMG!!! That’s effen bullshit!!! ... X&;$);):/‘ And, they storm out the joint! The other 2/3 of folks just stay in line.

Next to me in line is a slim fresh dressed young black man who looks cool enough to work at Roc Nation or Live Nation Urban as soon as he graduates college (probably Berklee College of Music) says to me:

"you can’t mess with black folk chicken! I been having this damn sandwich all summer long and now the Popeyes PR people in Louisiana put a press campaign out using indie influencers, comedians and memes and they relaunch the sandwich a week ago and two days later they sellout everywhere. Supply and demand! Profits are up $25M in additional sales at the counter! But, personally I’m pissed because they did bad business. Plus, we here waiting in line for a damn half hour because they make all the Uber Eats orders first.. next time I’m ordering this on Uber Eats.. nice meeting you Ice!!" BOOM

So there it is. Popeyes wins the supply and demand hype game and gives a rare home cookin Rucker Park style summer slam dunk to the boring-fast-food-no-taste-no-culture-industry!”

Jeremiah Younossi

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I filmed the food scientist Warren LeRuth for our first Great Chefs TV series back in 1980. The founder of Popeye’s Chicken in New Orleans, Al Copeland, hired Warren to assist in the frying process as well as develop their biscuit. It has never changed.
The new owners have just incorporated it into a sandwich.

John Shoup

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Popeye's chicken is the best without the sandwich. I have had a number of nationally renowned chefs agree with me too. The Washington post did a taste test of all the fried chicken sandwiches out there and they also concluded that the Popeye's sandwich was the best.
You better go check it out!

Tom Hedtke

Ps... KFC and Church's are grease city

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www.google.com/amp/s/amp.firstwefeast.com/eat/2016/01/chefs-love-popeyes

Old news that Popeyes is great - chefs been saying that for long time now :-)

And Pollo Campero is great in LA - they provided fried chicken in the green room at Levitt LA and it ROCKED

Willie Bauer

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I tried the Popeye's chicken sandwich weeks ago out of random curiosity. Maybe there was some advertisement, I don't recall. I like Chick Fil A (or, as my Nanny always called it, Chick a Fil) because the chicken itself actually tastes good and it's not dry. I decided to try Popeye's because I love their spicy fried chicken and their seasoned fries and they contrast Chick Fil A's weak points which are mostly soggy breading and tasteless fries. Also, why won't Chick Fil A put condiments on the sandwich for you? That's bizarre. If you want to eat on the go, you have to stop and park to put your condiments on. I don't get it.

I had a problem ordering the chicken sandwich at Popeye's because I wanted to order it like their chicken dinners, with side but no drink. It so happens I was going home and had stuff to carry in and didn't want to juggle the drink. The poor guy who was trying to take my order simply could not comprehend ordering a chicken sandwich and fries, but no drink. It was a ridiculous ordeal. Once I got it home, the sandwich tasted good, as expected. Chicken was battered and fried nice and crispy but the meat was still tender and juicy, which was a great change from Chick Fil A's soggy breading.

The reason I haven't bought the Popeye's sandwich again is because once I'm at Popeye's I'd rather have a dinner with spicy dark meat pieces (thighs are the best--more meat than a leg and super tender and juicy), fries and a buttery biscuit. Frankly, this obsession people have with chicken breast makes no sense to me. White meat is generally dry as a bone and doesn't have nearly the flavor that the dark meat has.

It's pretty sad that it's some kind of revolution when a fast food chain manages to serve chicken that tastes decent and isn't dry like cardboard. It's a super-low bar. No shit, I got a chicken sandwich at Wendy's a few weeks ago that was so overcooked it was inedible. WTF?

Amy Primeaux
Houston, TX

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There’s a Popeyes down the street from me on Laurel Cyn. I drove by the other night and there were cars lined around the block like in n out. I had no idea why. Now I know. Thanks.

Greg Haptor

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Check out the Shake Shack Chick N Shack sandwich. Tried it a while back as a I’ve been cutting back on red meat and I haven’t had anything else there since. It’s prefect :)

Fred Goldring

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I went to three different Popeye's today and each one was sold out. I don't know what's more disappointing the fact that they were sold out or the fact that I succumbed to traveling to three separate locations. Needless to say, I am bummed!

Noah Sheer
Def Jam Recordings

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Everyone knows Popeyes soooooo much better than kfc. Roscoes , not for sandwich but for fried my favorite in LA

George Drakoulias

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It’s a really good chicken sandwich.
My wife who never eats anything that is fried even said it was amazing.
Chick-fil-a clearly lost in this fight.
Best
Jon O'Keefe

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In Atlanta, it's insane! Like cars wrapped around the building and down the street at EVERY popeyes. Signs saying "2 sandwishes (yes, spelled sandwishes, lol) per car" and people not being able to get out for 15-20 minutes.

This should be a wake-up call for popeyes. Sales will be through the roof this quarter, but they're not gonna be able to continue the onslaught of people without better customer handling. CFA is militant about their drive through. Popeyes employees would probably tell people the fryer's down after an hour if they could.

Brian Martin

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And Doctor John, the Night Tripper, used to do Popeyes jingle…

Steve Greene

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Hey Bob - I caught that story last week as well and thought, at least I need to try it. Not even knowing where my local Popeyes is I went to Yelp to locate one... the descriptions and reviews of the restaurant and service was enough to dissuade this diner. I guess I’ll never know what I missed!

Robert (Bob) Piña

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Hardee's fried chicken from the early 90s. Yes, they have it on the menu now, but as is everything...it is NOT the same.
When this chicken was released, I knew people that would buy it by the pound, freeze some and bag some for leftovers. It was THAT good.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=4UBljwzblRM

Another Hardee's fried chicken commercial
www.youtube.com/watch?v=cvHUEQ7Bulk

And those biscuits... Mmmmmmmm
Thank you,
Bill Seipel

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