When you go out to eat, you probably expect the food to be made in the kitchen, even if all the kitchen staff does is stick food in the microwave. One restaurant in Long Beach, California couldn’t even do that much for their customers, though, and the owner’s response to getting called out is puzzling at best, and downright ridiculous at worst.
A Yelp user by the name of Tyler H. was visiting Long Beach with some friends when they decided to give Sweet Dixie Kitchen a try. The little restaurant attracted them because of its claims of homestyle comfort food that is locally sourced and made from scratch. As they were seated, they noticed some of the staff members bringing in two large boxes of Popeyes chicken back to the kitchen.
Tyler was curious about whether or not they would actually serve another restaurant’s chicken as their own, so he ordered the chicken and waffles. Once he got his meal, his question was quickly answered. “I thought the chicken tasted suspiciously like Popeyes,” he wrote in his Yelp review, “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.” After speaking with the manager, their group’s entire meal was compensated.
Kimberly Sanchez, owner of Sweet Dixie, saw the review and decided to respond in kind. She didn’t deny the fact that she brought in outside food to her restaurant and she seemed to have an attitude about the fact that Tyler brought it up in the first place. “Hi Tyler – We PROUDLY SERVE Popeyes spicy tenders- the best fried chicken anywhere and from New Orleans- which are delivered twice a day.” She really wasn’t having Tyler questioning her establishment just because they served Popeyes.
In an interview with Fox News, Kimberly doubled down on her reasons for using Popeyes, explaining, “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.” That’s not the tone she struck while she was responding to Tyler, though. In an apparent attempt at sarcasm, she continued, “We also in case you need to know buy our gumbo from a friend who sells it at a local farmer’s market.” She also said they didn’t “mill our own flour.” Wow, the sass train is leaving the station, all aboard!
She also says that she never tried to fool anyone into thinking that the chicken was made in-house. “We wrote it on our board in the restaurant, ‘Imported from Louisiana this week, thank you Popeyes.’ It wasn’t a secret,” she told Fox News. Because of how small the kitchen is, Kimberly maintains that they didn’t have room for the necessary deep fryer, so they had to make due with what they had, and what they had was a Popeyes down the street.
Regardless of whether it’s acceptable or not for a restaurant to use fast food as part of their entrees, it’s definitely not okay for a restaurant that boasts of locally sourced and made from scratch food to try and pass off fast food as such. There’s also the fact that Kimberly responded to a negative review in a way that was so far from professional. As Tyler said in his review, “If you’re considering having any chicken dish here then just go to Popeyes.”
