When I talk to people back home about college, they inevitably tell me they don’t know where or what Vassar is, and I inevitably tell them it’s an hour and a half outside of New York City. “Oh you probably visit the City a lot right?” One would think. In two-and-a-quarter years, I haven’t so much as considered going into the City while at college, despite plenty of opportunities to do so. I rarely go farther than a block outside of campus. I’m not against leaving campus per se, the right opportunity just rarely comes. That rare opportunity came in the form of Popeyes chicken.
During another disappointing Deece meal, my friends Vaughn and Allen and I came up with the brilliant idea of leaving campus to visit our local Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen for a nice change of pace. We each had different levels of Popeyes experience.
Allen was decently versed in Popeyes, Vaughn rarely ate fast food as a kid so he had never been and I’ve only had Popeyes twice in my life, with the second time being this past summer. I was never much of a chicken fan growing up anyway. After working at a McDonald’s for a year and a half in high school, though, I became a lover of chicken sandwiches, first the McChicken and then the Spicy Crispy.
We planned the trip f or the coming weekend. I expected it to be a beautiful evening stroll up the street, but in the morning, I was instead greeted by unending drizzles and chilly temperatures, with no end in sight for the rain. Some of you might have given up at that point and waited another week, but for me, the potential of leaving campus for a better meal was too exciting for it to wait. I think it says something that the opportunity to visit my local Popeyes was more enchanting to me than the opportunity to study abroad.
The three of us met up in front of Deece on Saturday (Allen was late). Allen (who was late) had been to this Popeyes before and said it would be a 10-minute walk. I took that to mean that it was like a 20-minute walk, and if you’re bad at estimating, it kind of feels like 10. The rain was light enough that you could dodge most of it with an umbrella. Allen ended up being right about the distance, because just after a few blocks, the lit-up Popeyes sign appeared.
When we entered, there was just one lady in front of us who was aggressively haggling at the counter for free food because they screwed up her order. I didn’t see whether or not she succeeded in getting it, because I was indecisively darting my eyes across the menu. Five minutes later, I ordered exactly what I thought I would get before we got there. Allen and I both got the spicy chicken sandwich with mashed potatoes. Vaughn got chicken tenders with a side of rice and beans. Vaughn and Allen both got strawberry lemonades and I got a strawberry Fanta from the counter, as the Coke Freestyle machine was sadly out of order.
At this point, I am going to address a common conception that Popeyes staff isn’t particularly friendly. From my limited experience, I can say that the vibes are just weird at Popeyes. At most fast food restaurants I’ve been to, there’s at least a suggestion that the staff doesn’t hate each other or the existence of customers. This is not the case at Popeyes. I don’t mean that as a complaint, just an observation.
In terms of ambience, we sat near the ordering counter, and the lemonade machine made a ticking sound and had a light flashing on it the entire time we were there. There was also a weird set of large, dusty spice jars to my right. Were we supposed to believe that Popeyes cooks with these in the back? Even worse, one of them had clearly been stolen.
I think fast food restaurants are way too obsessed with design. When I worked at McDonald’s, they remodeled the dining room, which meant walking through an active construction site before and after every shift for months. After construction finished, the dining room ended up having way more gray and two mediocre pop art murals, of a Quarter Pounder and the Statue of Liberty, respectively.
There’s really only one fast food restaurant whose design is consistently good, and that’s Five Guys. Nothing fancy there, just red and white tiles and pallets of potatoes. “What do we do with all these potato bags, boss?” “Eh, just put them in the dining room.” I think that works great for them.
In terms of the food, I don’t really have much say about it—it’s fast food. It’s both immensely satisfying and disappointing. My only note is that the meal didn’t come with biscuits and I thought it would, so I had to go back up and order those after the fact. Everything was quite good, despite an abundance of sodium warnings on the menu.
Day turned to night, and after we finished a rather in-depth discussion of our parents’ marital statuses, we headed back into the rain and cold. Vaughn finished his entire meal and decided to head back to the Deece for more food. Allen ate half of his sandwich and took it back with him to Main. I went back to Main too, cold and wet once again, but this time filled with Popeyes chicken.