If you go to a restaurant that advertises homemade food that is made from scratch, you’re going to assume you’re eating homemade food that is made from scratch. This doesn’t seem unreasonable.
But one California restaurant has gone viral (in a bad way) after a Yelp reviewer accused them of trying to pass off Popeyes chicken as their own.
Sweet Dixie Kitchen in Long Beach, California, has been open for about 3 years now. In an older interview with The Grunion, owner Kimberly Sanchez says, “We make real food with real stuff […] Real home-cooked food. The kind you want to eat every day.”
Sounds good, right?
And it was good— until one customer noticed that Sweet Dixie Kitchen’s chicken may not be all that it was cracked up to be.
Taking to Yelp, reviewer Tyler H. writes: “THE CHICKEN THEY USE IS FROM POPEYES! Before my friends and I got seated we saw them quickly bring in two large boxes of Popeyes to the kitchen. I wanted to believe that this was just a snack for the workers, but alas it was not.”
After noting that the chicken tasted “suspiciously like Popeyes”, Tyler asked a waiter about it, and the waiter admitted that it was, in fact, Popeyes chicken.
In response to this Tyler’s accusation, the owner writes back, saying that she “PROUDLY” serves Popeyes at Sweet Dixie Kitchen.
Sanchez explains that they source a few different menu items from other places, including their gumbo and jams.
“We promote usually small-batch local producers on the menu. The exception is Popeyes- we can’t fry at this location— and the fried chicken, I love so much and I at a ton of it in the ATL. So I serve it.”
Tyler, however, wasn’t buying it, and California media quickly caught wind of the story. He writes:
Sanchez took to the Sweet Dixie Kitchen Facebook page in an effort to control the bad publicity. Her post reads:
“On our menu- roughly 95% is house made- starting with a potato lets say- which we cut, season and cook- and make potato salad. We make quiche- as in crack each egg and measure spices and cream, and I put it in a pie crust that was made elsewhere (isn’t made here).
“We use the best product I can buy to make the items on the menu- some of them again, come from other companies, vendors, establishments just like any other place you eat at. Because that’s how the chicken works too. We use a ready made chicken – and always have – even before we decided to go with a certain chain as opposed to a food distributor brand fried chicken.”
People don’t seem to be satisfied with Sanchez’s explanation, however.
They think Sweet Dixie Kitchen should have been more transparent about sourcing the chicken from a popular fast food place— especially when her restaurant advertises home-cooked items cooked from scratch.
Not to mention the fact that chicken dishes are sold at a much higher price than one would pay if they simply bought chicken tenders from Popeyes themselves.
I have a feeling the drama with this one has just begun.
What do you think about this restaurant’s actions?
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