On Jan. 28, a Popeyes Chicken & Biscuits opened on Route 35 in Neptune, N.J. The day it opened there was so much traffic from the drive-through that it overflowed back onto Route 35 and caused major delays. I'm talking bumper-to-bumper traffic for a few miles on a single-lane piece of road at 10:30 a.m.
I resisted the temptation for a while (because I'm eating healthy these days) but then I completely caved in on Feb. 23. I just got my haircut at the barbershop and I accidentally turned South on Route 35 (yup...in the direction of Popeyes). As I am driving by Popeyes, the smell of food tickled my nostrils and my stomach growled (almost on cue). I turn around at the next intersection and drive back to Popeyes. I found the only available parking slot in the back of the restaurant and walked inside (I'm just not a drive-through person). In my opinion, Popeye's makes the best chicken of any fast food chain in the U.S. but the company is on some political fundraiser-like tip with its prices.
I get inside at 10:35 a.m. and there is already a line 20-people deep. They have about 25 black people working behind the counter and the line was a mixture of all races. I nodded my head slowly to myself as I gazed around the place. I was daydreaming for a minute when a dude tapped me on the shoulder at the same type as the female cashier yelled in an ignorant way "CAN I TAKE YOUR ORDER?" I had order's block (a.k.a...getting up to the counter and then not knowing what the hell you want). The cashier tapped her fingers while she waited for my order. After a 15-second delay, I ordered a two-piece meal with mashed potatoes & cajun gravy as my side and a fountain drink came with it.
I received my food about six minutes later and I sat down in the dining area. I sat facing the window on the entrance side of the parking lot. I counted 35 cars come into the parking lot for the 30 minutes that I'm there.
I'm saying to myself, why didn't they put this place here sooner?
24 comments:
DANG YOU!! now i'm wanting some popeye's #1 combo, 2 mild legs with red beans and rice, and i'm not eating meat right now-CURSES!!! (le sigh, maybe in april)
Popeye's chicken is too damn greasy for me...biscuits are off the hook though.
i am so not the popeye's person. don't like. not at all. slow, too expensive. and i'm a bojangles girl. gimme bojangles please. i've dreamt about it twice in the last month. and neither time i went inside. how sad is that?
I agree with chris, I would go to Popeye's just to get a biscuit, they're bangin...I don't know what they put in those things. And I know what you mean by "order's block", lol. Sometimes I get so indecisive when I go to fast food joints. I'm definitely the one to have the cashier waiting and holding the line up :(. There's too much to choose from.
From a Native New Orleanian, where Popeys was born, never, ever go into a Popeyes not knowing at least one order and how to order it.
Hey, I want a two-piece white, small cold drink, a biscuit and small fries.
It's like I always said and people don't believe....
LET THEM EAT CHICKEN!!!!
I got a similar story about chicken that may be appropriate here. I saw a line at the Costco (similar to Sam's Club and BJ'S wholesale) for rotisserie chicken that was like 30 heads deep...and there wasn't even a black person in site (except for me and my sister standing behind the nearest freezer, looking in disbelief and laughing). My man cookin' them jawns was even white. Look, Just Give'em Chicken.
Damn. Now I want a biscuit and honey.
HaHa I remember in high school a certain son of a world-renowned medical doctor, got his bootleg on, by driving to a Popeyes in the Beemer ordering biscuits, coming back to school, and selling them suckers. I didn't pay, but others did buy biscuits for me. Now I want some Popeyes, now I want a Po Bo, or one of them sammiches they be making!
Maybe it took so long b/c I just found out they're actually owned by a company in Canada now. But yeah, I went to one in New Orleans, and a McDonald's on Canal, and if you ain't payin attention, people will get skrait up ignant on yo behind. But yeah, I passed them up Monday night, I just wasn't in the mood for it, and they are expensive if you don't have a coupon (which I always forget) and went to Church's. I will never go there again. Took too long to order, took to long to get to the window, took too long to ring me up, got my order wrong, and it's the 3rd time and 3rd Church's I've been to in the last 3 years or so whose chicken tastes like they washed it heavily in dishwashing soap, so never again. But I don't think the ones down here open till 11. So everybody else's open at 10 or what? And they just started stayin open till midnight. But what gets me though is, there's at least one in Louisiana (that I know of, specifically in Lafayette) that's a buffet (and it's cheap, like $4.99 all you can eat) and they serve breakfast. And I mean real breakfast.
Popeye's is the staple of any black community...I'll keep you posted
yeah Popeye's is straight but now my mind is reminiscing about BOJANGLES!
You can disagree with me on the chicken comment...BUT NOBODY...does mashed potates like Popeye's does. I have to give them a tie with KFC on the biscuits though.
holla at Red Lobster for some biscuits
I'm gonna be the lone dissenter here. I like KFC way better. That original recipie is some addictive type shit. I could eat a bucket of original recipie wings all by myself. And the biscuits ain't no slouch ether. ;o)
I think i'm having chicken tonight.
KFC'S BISCUITS!!!! I guess, they seem like Popeye's without the butter. Anytime I ever go to KFC though, the chicken's cold now, and ever since a report about a girl finding baby cockroaches in a local KFC's chicken sandwich, I hate to even drive by one, let alone go there.
Maybe if Binghamton got a Popeye's more black people would live here...
@pops.....Red Loster for biscuits?
@serial_dater...KFC had been my longstanding No. 1 until I moved to upstate New York and found Popeye's. In Mass, Popeye's chains are not popular. Like I said before I still give the biscuits to KFC and I almost forgot the corn on the cob.
@Rahkia...that and a 24-hour liquor store.
Yes Red Lobster for biscuits!!!! When they're hot, they even top Popeye's. They have juuust the right amount of butter and herbs. Lawd I guess I need to go there soon.
I feel your pain. I grew up near a KFC on a main road. You definitely needed to know your way around the back roads around lunch and dinner time. My dad often remarked it was the only way you could unite us. B.Lee
@serial dater & journie major - I'll have to go to Red Lobster. I'm not a seafood fan...that's probably why I've never been there.
So the 20 or so people that posted on this post...yall are the blacks that roll up in Popeyes and Red Lobster whispering.
"Can I just get two biscuits?"
No, I definitely get my shrimp, one way or another and then the chicken strips (I love the naked chicken strips now) But you definitely have to get the biscuits. My mom bought Popeye's the other day, and I told her I had already made macaroni and cheese, and I guess they had some special b/c she only got chicken and one side, and NO BISCUITS!!! I was uppppppset.
honestly. it's a mood thing with me when it comes to the biscuits - although i'm usually in the mood for popeyes biscuits. But popeyes mashed potatoes always win. they're a meal by themself - you got a starch, pieces of meet and veggies.
Yo, let me get a three piece white meal. Spicy. And let me get two extra biscuits ... Popeyes is the black community's food crack. That stuff is off the hook.
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