cross-posted from: https://lemmit.online/post/4802929
TIL A restaurant in Long Beach, CA, was found to be serving Popeye’s chicken and passing it off as their own. They would buy the chicken at Popeyes and upcharge for their own chicken and waffles d…
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The original was posted on /r/todayilearned by /u/Bluest_waters on 2024-12-31 23:25:54+00:00.
Original Title: TIL A restaurant in Long Beach, CA, was found to be serving Popeye’s chicken and passing it off as their own. They would buy the chicken at Popeyes and upcharge for their own chicken and waffles dish. Once found out the owner refused to apologize.
Doesnt every restaurant do this with Sisco?
No. I run a bar and don’t deal with Sysco whatsoever. Fucking garbage is what they bring. For example, the boxes of wings i get cost 80 dollars more than sysco wings, but they’re old breed chickens with thick skins and strong bones, non rubbery meat, they don’t grow to market weight in anywhere near the time the modern NA meat breeds do, these chickens taste like 1985. I don’t have to batter them, they don’t taste like shit. The extra money is worth it in customers actually wanting to eat the food here.
Where is this bar that offers these succulent wings?
this is how to find themTompkins, Saskatchewan. The wings are imported from Brazil.
Exactly. This is why every Americanized Chinese buffet tastes the same. Same for sports bars and so many other restaurants. They all get their food from either Sysco or Shamrock.
Lol. I do get Butter Chicken sauce from a distributor by the bucket, that’s why butter chicken tastes the same in every hindu restaurant on this continent. However, I use it for Butter Chicken Onion Rings, have yet to see that anywhere else.
Yeap. It do be like that. I once worked for an “ISP” computer shop that re-sold NetZero dialup and de-badged eMachines. (No surprise the owner was an ex-con who has since done time again.)
What if I told you most retail businesses - including restaurants - are just middlemen marking things up that you could buy cheaper elsewhere?
Restaurants, in particular, are famously difficult to operate at a profit. So if your local chicken place isn’t way more expensive, and slower, and/or poor quality it’s probably because they take shortcuts. Very very few places are making things from scratch.
You got me there, burgers from scratch, but I have to tell people I haven’t seen before that this isn’t fast food, it’s gonna be a half hour. I premake and freeze the patties, but it takes nearly ten minutes ( in this old ass radiation king dial microwave from the 80s i found new in a box, that thaws meat without cooking it) to thaw just one patty, although I make 3/4 pounders
99% of restaurants are just reselling Sysco food anyway
Many, many people need to realize that there are like 3 companies that own all food distribution in the US. People aren’t talking out the ass when they say “late-stage capitalism”
After working in enough sysco-based restaurants I fucking hate eating out because that’s all I can taste is sysco products. I only eat at places that make their stuff from scratch and that’s hard to find, and spendy. But worth it.
Exactly. The headline could just as easily read “Customers discover their $30 meal is made with the same prepackaged food they serve down the street at a school cafeteria.”
…last week i learned that the cafeteria food i grew up with was scratch-made; the reason it tasted the same everywhere wasn’t because they all bought prepared foods from the same distributors, but because they all used the same USDA-provided recipes…
I don’t actually have a proper kitchen back there
Great thing to say as a restaurant owner.
At a certain level every restaurant is up selling something from someone, if not Popeye, then the local supermarket, local wholesaler, butcher, farmer, family member …
Everyone knows what Sysco products taste like, whether they realize it or not.
Honestly pretty good ad for Popeye’s…
I love fried chicken and I’m sure I’d be satisfied if I was unknowing served Popeye’s at a nice restaurant.
Would you be satisfied that you paid $15 for half of a $10 Popeye’s meal and some frozen waffles?
If I didn’t notice then it worked.
My point is that Popeye’s is good enough that I wouldn’t notice.
You ever get their red beans and rice? That stuff has no business being that good for fast food. It tastes just like what you’d get in New Orleans.
I mean, technically it is from New Orleans.
I heard they also secretly replaced their coffee with Folger’s Crystals.
An upcharged from the store price
I worked at a restaurant that didn’t stock all fruit/veg. When somebody ordered something they’d send me across the street to the grocery store, and then I’d bring the stuff through the back entrance. Seems similar here
Sometimes at the pizza joint we would get bad mushrooms from the truck. They were presliced and maybe someone let them set out at the factory? But sometimes they’d be slimy right off the truck. I’d toss them out, place a refund request, and then go to Kroger at 2-3AM after we closed to buy all their button mushrooms and slice them up.
Even more rare that we’d be so low I would go buy out two Kroger’s. They aren’t even 24 hour anymore. It’s a shame, grocery shopping in the middle of the night after work was pretty nice.
I’m fine with getting ingredients needed to actually make the food, but if I go to your restaurant and order what is, supposedly, your food and you’re just going to the place across the street and serving me that for more money I’d be pretty pissed.
That’s not at all similar. You’re buying the ingredients not the cooked food.
Yes, sure but same happens for cooked stuff… You know almost every restaurant buys their premade food from a vendor right? Then the restaurant just reheats it–unless you are eating at a place that is doing all dishes from scratch… But that is rare these days.
They’re still open as catering with the same name lol
How the hell did they discover this lmao
From the article:
The restaurant’s troubles started after a customer allegedly saw Sweet Dixie employees carrying Popeyes boxes into the kitchen.
Maybe they were just having a party lol
That would be maybe even more damning. The employees of a fried chicken place getting their own food from across the street would send me running from that place.
I mean if they keep getting from the same place, or even area, people are going to catch on. They’d presumably be getting a lot of chicken weekly, if not daily and probably sent the same person to pick it up every time.
From the article she had a deal with Popeyes and got a bunch of chicken twice a day. It’s capitalism baby. I don’t think she did anything more wrong than Panera bread microwaving soup from a bag.
I bet it was the Popeyes staff… see the same people all day… Lol… You have to tip out the back of the house or they are going to rat you out!!!
