California restaurant under fire for serving Popeyes chicken

LONG BEACH, CA (KABC) — A Long Beach, California restaurant is under fire after customers found out the restaurant was re-serving Popeyes Louisiana Chicken.

For the last four years, Kimberly Sanchez has been serving up breakfast and lunch at her restaurant, Sweet Dixie Kitchen.

“Most of my stuff from here is made from scratch,” she said.

The restaurant’s troubles started after a customer allegedly saw Sweet Dixie employees carrying Popeyes boxes into the kitchen. The customer then wrote a Yelp review relaying his dissatisfaction with having to pay a premium for fast food fried chicken.

A Sweet Dixie employee confirmed they source the fast food chain for their chicken and waffles, which sells for about $15. You can buy chicken at Popeyes for much less without the fixings, Sanchez adds, but she’s not apologizing.

Sanchez responded directly to the Yelp review, and later explained further on the restaurant’s Facebook page, defending their use of Popeyes spicy tenders.

“We PROUDLY SERVE Popeyes spicy tenders – the best fried chicken anywhere and from New Orleans – which are delivered twice a day,” she wrote in her reply.

Sanchez wrote they have always used ready-made chicken, even before deciding to go with a certain chain as opposed to food distribution brand chicken.

“My kitchen is not set up for frying. We’re an old building. I don’t actually have a proper kitchen back there,” she said to ABC11’s sister-station KABC. “I love Popeyes chicken. I love it. I think it’s the best chicken out there.”

Sanchez says she’s reached out to Popeye’s for approval to officially add them to her menu and hasn’t heard back. Meantime, as tough and transparent as she’s tried to be, the criticism has been tough to handle.

“I’m in tears at my house, like inconsolable,” she said. “We didn’t do anything wrong. I did something I thought was the best product I could bring in. You don’t want to eat it, don’t eat it.”