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Y’know, the whole “Buy Local, Eat Local, Be Local” mantra is one that some, including myself, take seriously.
Many try not to patronize Starbucks and instead go to Recreational Coffee. Many try not to hit up fast food when feeling lazy’n’fatty and opt, instead, for deliciousness at a local restaurant.
This is—well, was—a reason that Sweet Dixie Kitchen made my list honoring 15 essential Long Beach breakfast joints: owner Kimberly Sanchez boasts of how Sweet Dixie “stays local,” the restaurant’s Facebook page says “everything is made here,” [it has since been removed but is pictured left] and she assigns her Instagram pictures with Made From Scratch hashtags like the one pictured below, while stating “there is simply no reason food can’t look and taste amazing with… better cooking methods.”
One of those methods? Bringing in Popeyes chicken tenders to use on their $13 chicken’n’biscuit sandwich.
Called out by by Angeleno Tyler Hiebert on Yelp! for the switch-and-bait, Sanchez was quick to respond—and defend—her use of the corporate chicken empire’s food, noting that her kitchen isn’t prepped to handle frying:
“Hi Tyler – We PROUDLY SERVE Popeyes spicy tenders—the best fried chicken anywhere and from New Orleans—which are delivered twice a day. We also in case you need to know buy our gumbo from a friend who sells it at a local farmers market. And our jam—which we used to make here—we were introduced to a woman from Alabama who now sells the most wonderful jams and AS IT HAS ALWAYS been our goal to feature local food and guest chefs here, we promote usually small batch local producers in our menu. The exception is Popeyes—we can’t fry at this location—and it [sic] the fried chicken I love so much and I ate a ton of it in the ATL. So I serve it. We also don’t grow our own veggies—we purchase those—and if we run out of our own slow cooked pork, in order to keep our menu intact, I will order a batch of carnitas from the best place in Long Beach. We don’t mill our own flour as we don’t own a mill or wheat farm and our coconut cake is made by our prep cook who makes cakes for private clients. Just FYI. So whatever to you and your little review like it was some great exposure—and whatever to you dude.We do what we do and bring Long Beach the best food—mostly made here but we always get by with a little help from our friends—and we don’t want it any other way. Kim Sanchez.”
Then, when a customer decided that using Popeyes was somewhat okay, the restaurant should just clearly advertise it, Ms. Sanchez told her to “get over herself”:
With all due respect, Ms. Sanchez, you should just say on your menu how you proudly serve Popeye’s and stop telling folks about your “housemade jam”; promote the other businesses you profit off of and skip the whole “Stay local” and #scratch mantra while you’re at it. When you run out of your slow-cooked pork, you tell customers you’re sold out; you don’t resell the work of others and claim it as “made from scratch.”
To top it all off, your sarcasm, from not owning a mill to your “Whatever Dude”s, adds further fuel to the Yelper’s fire—and this is coming from a food lover who despises Yelp on almost every level.
This isn’t necessarily an attack on your business as much as it is defending the right for customers to know what you’re feeding them; it’s about being forthright in saying that this is an insult to those who care about food and how it is made and where it comes from; it’s about really trying to ignite within you the idea that you’re basically creating and selling a form of gentrified Southern food, which is just outright egregious and offensive to those who cherish it.
64 Comments
I heard they were closing down anyways…
Well they sure are now!
I won’t be eating here now or ever.
This is a bummer, but I’m not surprised. I loved coming here, the food used to be great, but their service model is the absolute worst, their attitudes kind of suck and now this. How does it take two hours to get a breakfast sandwich on a Saturday at noon with no booze and no wait for a table? Get t together Sweet Dixie. You’re not the only place serving Southern style fare in Long Beach, at least try to do better.
Incredibly well said.
I heard about this last week, and started trolling through a bunch of Kim’s Yelp replies to unsatisfied patrons. And wow this chick has no chill. She a straight up B.. i will never eat here.
Dear Brian – I’m am sorry you find it egregious – we serve a great product – 96% is made on the premises. We have NEVER said we make the chicken here. My sarcasm with that yelper stems from him insinuating we ‘ran in the door with a bag of Popeyes’ I carried it thru the front door as I do every morning in full view- I wholesale our biscuits and desserts – the restaurants that but them do not say they come from our place and the place around the corner from us doeasnt put on their menu that their pastry comes from Rossmore and when we did poboys I didn’t say I got the baguette at Babette’s – I have no problem putting that on a menu –
Just like the steens syrup I bring in. Done with this. I stand by that. Anytime someone want to know – eat local- that means we are a local restaurant – eat fresh / it’s all fresh every day. You have accused me of something I did not do –
With out even a call to find out. And FYI right now the strawberry jam is house made as was the raspberry last week. More than happy to disclose – many restaurants wouldn’t.
Sorry for typos – let me disclose I was not spell checking.
Kim, as a corporate PR pro who has specialized in the food industry for 20+ years, I can tell you – with all due respect – you’re handling this situation very poorly. I know this is very distressing to you since the ramifications of an issue like this will surely impact you and your family. I’d strongly recommend you take a step back, stop being defensive, and simply apologize to your customers.
I understand your point – you’re proud of the food you serve and you don’t believe you were hiding anything. However, your customers were caught off guard by it and honestly thought they were eating locally sourced/scratch made food. No one would expect to pay $13 for fast food chicken – even if it’s “authentic”. You made a serious mistake here by not being transparent about your business operations. You need to acknowledge it, apologize and think about how you operate differently moving forward.
You’re right … eat local means eat in your neighborhood. But, it also means, eat fresh ingredients prepared from scratch – that are sourced locally. Most would agree the latter definition is the more common understanding of “eat locally.”
Step away from the computer, take a deep breath and think about how you empathize with your customers. Take their opinion into consideration – They are the ones that matter – your business lives and dies by their impression of how your handle this situation (so far, not good). Put your pride, ego and need to be right at any expense, aside. Then, think about how you operate differently/more transparently moving forward. If you’re out of pork, say you’re sold out. Period. There’s no other way around it.
I know entrepreneurs work their tails off – as I’m sure you do too – this is a hard situation. The approach you’re taking now is only going to continue to make it worse. You’ve got to acknowledge you made a mistake here.
Good luck.
Ann, this was very well said. I totally agree with you. She needs to step back and re-evaluate her business and how she is handling this situation.
AGREED!!! well said ANN.
Perfectly said.
Completely agree with you Ann! I have never dined at the restaurant, but after hearing the controversial info, I felt bad for the owner and wanted to give the restaurant a try to support the business. However after reading the owners unprofessional responses to customers, it left a very rotten taste in my mouth and now solely based off of her caddy “couldn’t care less what you think” response, I no longer care to support her.
Very well put.
Thank you Ann – I agree with you 100%. And like you, I’m a restaurant/chef publicist and marketing “guru” (according to some – LOL) that’s been doing this for 25 years. Right or wrong (I have NO idea what the law is or what may have been required as far as disclosure), at this point it has nothing to do with the chicken, it’s how it was handled by the owner. This situation could have been a mere blip in the whole scheme of things had it been handled correctly. I think she just panicked – easy to do when under pressure like this as a business owner. Girl needs a serious crisis management publicist STAT. Unfortunately, that’s not my forte or I’d have be over there offering my services as soon as it happened. Unfortunately, I never had the pleasure of eating there and understood it to be quite delicious. I’m only walking distance and tried a couple times, but never understood the service model and ended up sitting at a table outside and it never being explained (the signage at the door explaining how it worked was confusing – or maybe I wasn’t smart enough to figure it out). Regardless, best of luck Kim! I hate to see women-owned businesses bite the dust for something trivial like this. It’s not like she killed a guest with e-coli or something. Perspective people. And the name calling is unwarranted.
And let me chime in as a social media pro: stop it. Your brand is getting trounced online and you have only yourself to blame for the downward spiral.
You are not doing yourself any favors by engaging negatively on social with customers and others who feel as if they’ve been duped. Your indignant, high-and-mighty posts only feed the belief that you were indeed caught doing something nefarious, but could care less.
If you want to win your audiences back, you’ll need to write a sincere mea culpa. Don’t fall into the sorry-not-sorry trap; don’t post a mealy-mouthed “I’m sorry you feel that way”. Be real about it. Be more transparent.
Social is as much about listening as it is about engaging. Think before you post, no more shooting from the lip.
Thanks everyone. I’m so intrigued by this story – in part because it was such a self-inflicted wound by the business owner, but also because it’s local to LB. Did anyone see Brian Addison (the writer of this piece) on Fox News and the business owner? She still hasn’t learned the lesson. Clip link provided below:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z5tzwup4KjU&feature=share
I’m interested to see what if any fallout will come from local food safety inspectors. Pre-prepared foods warmed all day + sourcing prepared foods from different restaurants all over the city and not clearly knowing who-made what-when and where – for the products served in your restaurant cannot be up-to-code. I know I don’t want to eat at a restaurant that takes food safety so cavalierly. Lauren’s assessment below is exactly right. Preparing pre-prepped products on-site is one thing, keeping cooked items warm all day – while bacteria and pathogens grow on them – is a whole other thing. This is clearly a small business owner in over her head, and doesn’t have a clue how much trouble she’s in (from a public perception standpoint). If you need a chicken product for your dish — and you can’t serve fried chicken … MAKE A DIFFERENT DISH. PERIOD.
Brian Addison — Congrats on great local journalism! Have you followed-up with LA County Health and Safety Inspectors to see if this is a code violation and what if any follow-up they plan to have on evaluating this restaurant?
That tends to be a pattern… the whole annoying spell check thing, right? Your writing style, which is distinctly clumsy, gives you away and hurts your argument about how someone else wrote that original “about me” section. Also… Sandwich or Sandwitch? So the Biscuit Witch thing doesn’t really work, does it? Or is this some cute Halloween thing? Stop defending yourself, you’re starting to just piss us all off.
You’re a horrible person, Holly.
You can’t be trusted with the food you serve now. Close the business and start over, just do it the right way next time.
But people are going to find it very hard to trust the food you make now.
Your SICK! you crazy Bitc*, as a restaurant owner who completely serves F2T every single day. QUIT trying to steal other peoples product as use as your own. If you cant sell FRIED chicken at your location then here’s a TIP… DONT SELL IT! Your business is just as FLAWED as you. It is hard enough to run and operate a restaurant quit trying to be something your not. Your customers will turn on you the minute they find out your FAKE. Being a bitch for no reason other than you were caught and found out to be a LIAR. Better yet, SHAME ON YOU of charging $13.00 for a chicken Biscuit that you make from a BOX of BISQUICK and Popeye’s chicken. I am disgusted right now. WHAT A UGLY PERSON, no wonder her business is struggling. Look me up if you are ever in Veneta Oregon I would love to Buy you and your family breakfast and show you what Authentic Scratch made farm to table food is actually like.
Wow. Ryan B. There is no need to call her names like that. As a restaurant owner/farmer myself, I feel bad for her situation, yes, she is defended person but comm on really? And you claimed yourself as restaurant owner? What a heartless and ugly person you are!
Btw, please! don’t say that ” completely serves F2T” it is overrated! there is no such things is 100% F2T restaurants including 3 Michelin stars those claimed so! Shame on you!
You clearly don’t understand the deception you impose on your customer who as patrons have the right to know that you are selling them fully cooked Popeye’s chicken. You menu is deceptive and your method is false advertising.
@Brian Adison – writer of this post clearly explained it to you. He perfectly stated the reasons that your response was inadequate. You came across as someone frantically trying damage control which sadly has failed. Rather than remind yourself that customers or patrons are the essence of your success or failure has escaped you.
A little acknowledgment admitting that you made a mistake and apologizing is all it needed. You decided to insult the persons arrogantly using ‘ whatever dude’ and the other ‘get over yourself’. Not a professional response nor a professional manner in which you handled this issue.
I encourage you to deeply reflect why it is so hard for you to apologize?
Lady, how would you feel if you ordered a cheeseburger from a diner, and they quickly sent someone across the street to McDonald’s to buy it and pass it off as their own? Just like a burger, it’s not just about the meat between the bread, it’s about the whole ensemble and chefs spend years, YEARS, getting their homemade fried chicken just right and it’s supposed to be a point of pride for any Southern diner. What you’ve done here is just unbelievably bad and unethical business practice. Not only did you have bad instinct on the initial decision to deceive your customers, your responses to this situation are jaw-dropping. You done got caught, and now you’re lashing out at people instead of apologizing.
Never knew it existed.
Wow…I used to like that place.
Anything with Dixie in the name is a red flag. (Tom, tom, crash)
I think Kim (and her few defenders on other threads) are missing the points. You market yourself as home cooked and use hashtags like #scratch, then customers have a right to certain expectations about what they’re getting. Popeyes aside, what I find more repulsive is Kim’s attitude. It’s defiant, rude, condescending, full of bizarre justifications, and reminds me of someone I know who has legit narcissistic personality disorder. It would be comical if it wasn’t so sad. I’m willing to wager that Sweet Dixie will end up closing and serving Popeyes is only partially why – the main reason will be many will boycott this place is Kim’s response to everything. It’s insane. And because she’s so public with her crazy, I wish her luck finding an employer; she’s gonna need it.
Please see below…
Lived across the street before. Used to frequent the place. Quality is sometimes very good, although it’s hit or miss. But one thing I can say is that the owner did sometimes give attitude. Some places can chalk it up to being edgy or something. But it didn’t come off that way. So I’m not surprised at her extremely rude responses to HER customers. Not cool. Just be honest and don’t be so “made from scratch holier than thou” until you run out and go buy a substitution to serve as “made here”
Just wow. This person genuinely sees nothing wrong with her business practices, her handling of spot-on criticism, or (I’m guessing) the name of her restaurant, all of which shows me there is no place for her in hospitality. Certainly not in the Long Beach area.
This was written in response to Emma’s comment above.
Hi Emma,
Anyone who has known Kim for a while understands her red-line temperament, which at times, as you wrote, is defiant, rude, condescending, and yes she can be crazeeeeee, (Think Soup Nazi lol)
As background, in June, prior to putting on the Chicken Biscuit sandwich on the menu (it started in mid-July), Kim looked at a variety of fried chicken products from Companies who service the food-service industry. She didn’t like any of them. What Kim has always loved is Popeyes. So she decided to go with Popeyes. The brand name was left off the menu and that was my recommendation to Kim. I felt Popeyes would have to give permission to use their name on the menu. However, the ball was dropped as there was no follow-up; it was and still is on the board as you walk in. I should mention using Popeyes was MORE expensive than the other chicken products Kim tested, but declined to use.
As for #scratch and the like, Kim and her crew indeed make the vast majority of products onsite After a lifetime in the food-service industry, I know businesses take liberty with the likes of Marketing and Advertising i.e. #Scratch #Local #SupportBlahBlahBlah. A major Supermarket talks about their local produce, only to find out Local can mean more than 250+ miles away. So too restaurants who write of their fresh baked bread, though it is a frozen bread, which is baked on-site, Trader Joe’s products find their way into kitchens; I would say a substantial amount of operations do back up #scratch etc, but not 100% of what they sell.
So this is Kim…
She opened Sweet Dixie Kitchen with $600 in the register. She worked every day, 10-12 hours was the norm and that does not include what she does in the Long Beach Community, where she has donated endless time and food for a host of community events.
Right from the beginning Sweet Dixie Kitchen received positive reviews from Local and Social Media, including Yelp. Not long after Kim opened Sweet Dixie Kitchen a Yelp reviewer wrote something Kim didn’t like. I remember reading it, laughing at the language and phoned Kim recommending the task of handling complaints be given to someone else. I think she might listen this time around, if not our kids will tie her ankle to a ball and chain where she cannot leave the kitchen…of course Social Media days are over 🙂
Lastly, so there be full disclosure, I am Kim’s former husband. Though divorced over 20 years we are still close friends, from time to time we have worked together, and we share 3 exceptional children, along with a passion for food. To say she is contrite would be a gross understatement, she hasn’t slept since this came to her attention last night.
Brian Addison blog will go viral through the food-service scene and beyond, a blogger’s dream. Sadly, Kim’s menu mistake along with her response to Tyler H., has become a nightmare for an otherwise talented, if somewhat crazeeee individual.
So because other people do it too, its okay for her to do it?
There are lots of folks who also work hard to ensure local ingredients and take it seriously. Sure, there are some who are dishonest about the #scratch tag, but just because they exist doesn’t mean its okay.
It discredits the small business who work hard to ensure where they get their stuff from. And also like Brian said, customers who spend a little bit more to support those LEGITIMATELY LOCAL business.
Vince,
This is situation is near and dear to you as you have children together and this business supports them and her. But most small business owners work long hours and open with little to no money…that’s just how it is but her response’ s to customers are down rude and repulsive.
As a business owner myself I know it difficult to hear negative comments about something you love and put a lot of time and effort into but that is also how you grow and do better. It comes with owning a business; no one is going to like everything you do and that is ok.
Social media can be the life or death of a business, so how you handle a situation like this is critical to her business and survival. No matter how she handled it, someone is still not going to like it but the way she did handle it, will have people not returning to her establishment.
If anything, she will definitely learn what not to do in the future, if she has one.
Easy for you to comment about this when it affects your family, she is a LIAR pure and simple and a HEARTLESS WITCH!!!! her business will be closing soon as I would ALMOST GUARENTEE she fucked herself by lying and acting as though her shit doesn’t stink. SHE IS A LIAR and A CHEAT PERIOD
damn. i would have to say your comment is the only heartless thing ive seen Ryan B. Dont get caught up in this internet mob mentality.
Vince,
Well said. I think you should be helping Emma from this point on with her PR. If she would have answered like you have here much could have been avoided.
Hey Jim – Why do I need help with *my* PR? This isn’t my business to run (or sink). I was just trying to point out that Kim’s attitude is a bigger problem than the chicken.
Ann for the win in regards to her PR advice. Spot on!
This is NOT helping, dude. JFC.
Does Popeyes know? I imagine there has to be some sort of licensing fee that needs to be paid if she’s going to be using their product and name.
Exactly right and it will now fore her to confront the fat that she used Popeye’s product and sells it as her own. As her ex-husband Vince stated the decision was made to keep the name of the fried chicken source pretty much a secret. That can be construed as intentionally avoiding fees owed to Popeye.
I think her response that is long with angry undertones but unproductive and confusing even to herself has now opened a can a worms.
A simple apology can do wonders in a situation like this.
My husband and I were discussing this (the ability to provide Fried Chicken with limited space), and he (a professionally trained and educated chef) described numerous ways to prepare Fried Chicken without even having a fryer. You have an oven, right? He’s prepared some oven-fried chicken that even outshines my own Momma’s Fried Chicken, to which Popeye’s doesn’t hold a candle to.
Just bite your lip, breathe, acknowledge the mishap and make amends.
All can continue to flow nicely as it once was, just think outside the box…of Popeye’s.
I’ve only eaten a meal at Sweet Dixie twice, the second time being a violation of my previous rule, I’ll Never Eat Here Again!, which wasn’t an assessment of the food (which is delicious) but the service. Only one word needed here: Sucks.
Ok. But it only sucks, I think, because of really kind of a F.U. attitude from the workers mixed in with more than a little Poor Me victimization stew (We’re trying really, but just look at everything We/I have to do!). Yummy!
I kind of hope it doesn’t close though. I hate change. I’m afraid of what may replace Sweet Dixie: maybe an impossibly hip and aloof men’s clothing store that sells $250 pants and serves canapés and wine coolers? God I hope not.
I agree with everyone else, the response is going to prove much more harmful than the deception itself. just a small amount of contrition and this would have been a blip of a story. Instead, you have this.
I would also like to point out that to me, the whole ‘local’ ethos is about support. So when you collab with another business, you should give them a shout-out. you mention you get your gumbo from a lady with a booth at a farmer’s market, but don’t tell us who. I would like to see that proudly displayed on the menu! Give the lady her props! When Creamery and Pie Bar team up they tell us, and it’s awesome.
Lastly I saw elsewhere Kim say she didn’t disclose the Popeyes Chicken use for fear of copyright; I don’t think that applies, anymore than the attic needing to worry about using the Flaming Hot Cheetos name, which is plainly disclosed on their menu…
If she claimed it was a copyright concern, that’s nonsense, because copyright doesn’t apply. If she claimed it was a trademark concern, that’s also nonsense, because there’s no infringement for calling Popeye’s Chicken “Popeye’s Chicken.” It would be an infringement if she were calling her own legitimately scratch-made product “Popeye’s Chicken.” The actual root problem is a matter of both transparency and licensing.
TRANSPARENCY, because you *have* to tell people if a major component of the meal you’re serving them is another vendor’s re-packaged finished product. Imagine if our local chocolatier was just putting his label on Hershey bars or our favorite pie lady was sneaking Polly’s pies in the back door of her shop every morning. Most people don’t care where you source your minor ingredients, but certain core products are expected to be of *your* making. Consider also how someone would feel if they were actively boycotting Popeye’s for some reason, only to discover they’ve been unknowingly eating Popeye’s chicken at their favorite *local* restaurant for years. Foodies also pay a premium for locally-sourced, scratch-made meals, and re-packaged fast food does not warrant that premium – even if the service and environment were to add to the dining experience. From what I’m reading, in fact, it’s quite the opposite.
LICENSING, because you can’t benefit from another brand’s name and reputation without permission, compensation, and adherence to the brand owner’s terms of use. Of course Popeye’s would not be okay with Sweet Dixie Kitchen re-selling Popeye’s product as their own in secret, but they’re not likely to do find out (at a corporate level) and/or do anything about it as long as it’s carried out discretely. Now that it’s out in the open, their problems could be two-fold: customer backlash for the lack of transparency (to put it nicely) and at the very least a cease-and-desist from Popeye’s for essentially private-labeling their finished product.
And again, this is the service industry. The hospitality industry. I have to wonder why the owner of Sweet Dixie Kitchen is in this business in the first place if she has so much contempt for her customers and needs to be restrained on social media. Entrepreneuring is hard af, and it’s supposed to be. It’s not for everyone. There are other, better ways to make ends meet.
PS: I love that Popeye’s coupons are showing up as ads in this comment thread.
The nasty vile that’s spilling from the mouth of Kim Sanchez on social media is now the bulk of Sweet Dixie’s problem. Slapping Popeye’s Fried Chicken between a biscuit for $13.00 is so unethical, tackey and low-brow within itself- but her mouth and attitude is what will cause her failure. And yeah, it should keep her up at night. Nastiness like that belongs no where in the customer service industry (any part of it) and certainly doesn’t belong as the social media rep. for a business. As far as her inability to fry chicken, what does that even mean? You plug an electric fryer ($40 at Sears) in the wall add cooking oil, chicken, turn it over and you’re done. Coat the chicken with spices, toss it in the oven (use Shake-n-Bake) = delicious. Again, it’s the bite of what’s coming out of her mouth that’s created all of this. Someone needs to unplug her from the computer and her business and send her on a long vacation. #notfromscratch #popeyes Oh and, it goes without saying, posting a sign saying “Today’s potatoes are from…” for french fries is a far cry away from walking “proudly” in the front door with McDonald’s French Fries and claiming they’re from scratch. No, “bless her heart”. #nasty
That Ryan B. has some issues of his own to work out before he gives advice to others. Incidentally, there is no farm to table restaurant located in Veneta, Oregon on this web guide: https://www.eugenecascadescoast.org/local-foods/how-to-eat-local/restaurants/
Ryan B. might have some problems with the truth himself. If that IS his real name, he might be the Ryan Brown that worked at or ran the Farmhouse Restaurant in Veneta, and they have some interesting stories here: https://www.yelp.com/biz/farm-house-restaurant-veneta
It would be especially hilarious if he was the guy who angrily replied to a disappointed customer, “what do you expect, Jesus f***ing Christ”. It sounds like him. Which helps explain why the owners abandoned the restaurant and ran away from their lease. Judge not lest ye be judged.
Dox much? Good grief. The guy was a dick, but he didn’t say he worked at farm to table restaurant. So you track down some random Ryan in Oregon and start with a personal attack? Are you Kim Sanchez?
This is about the most bootleg thing I ever heard…
[…] to Longbeachize and FoodBeast (via Eater), Tyler H. received confirmation from the employee that the fried chicken […]
Most restaurants don’t make crispy chicken sandwiches from scratch. Those who are upset, does this mean that restaurants that serve pre-made crispy chicken patties need to list the company from which they buy them? Does every prepped food need to be identified and cataloged in the menu? How far does this need to go before you feel you’ve been adequately informed as a consumer?
We’re talking Popeye’s here people. Not a restaurant distributor, not a restaurant wholesaler, not even raw chicken or frozen chicken from Vons or Whole Foods…we’re talking a ready-to-eat cooked entree from a restaurant, bought (cheap), brought in to her restaurant, sitting around, marked up in price and sold as “everything is cooked fresh on-site” on her chalkboard. No one gives a rats butt where she gets her frozen waffles from, her syrup, her frozen sausage patties, the flour for her “biscuits”, the potatoes for her home fries…I do care that she’s serving reheated Popeye’s Fried Chicken marked up what, 300%.
Come on.
Kim Sanchez has lied. Her actions are completely unethical in the restaurant industry and is a scab on the restaurant industry standards. Code of conduct ruined. And to the chef that allowed this in their kitchen? OMG!
Pouring a dose of ketchup over a McDonald’s Big Mac, selling it for $20.00 and calling it your own…please. The same revolting scenario.
Yeah, and I also care about how nasty she’s been through all of this too.
I also love the printable Popeye’s coupons in this comment thread.
The issues here are two fold:
1. If this were brought in by a distributor it would be shipped, frozen/refrigerated/delivered according to food safety standards. Walking from restaurant to restaurant with bags of cooked proteins that hasn’t been evaluated for food handling/packaging safety as a non packaged item is a food safety violation. The responsibility, say if it were a bakery delivering bread would be on the bakery selling the bread to the restaurant. Popeyes, having no knowledge of this, is being exposed by the improper handling of their products. Should a diner become sick eating the sandwich and the owner states, “it isn’t my fault, that is a Popeyes chicken breast” would then create issues for Popeyes, which their legal department would avoid.
2. They are reselling products that are not made for resale. I can promise attorneys for Popeyes will be reaching out to this restaurant owner. Popeyes, as well as other companies, maintain the right to resale. If a bakery sells to her, or she “wholesales” to other restaurants that is an agreed upon relationship. Popeyes, having no knowledge of this surely has not engaged in a resale relationship. In addition to that a franchisee who may have knowledge of her actions also does not retain the right to create a resale relationship. Plain and simple this is a violation of the agreement she makes in purchasing products from Popeyes as a consumer.
Finally as her ex husband if you aided her decision making to move forward with this decision to use Popeyes Chicken, I would be accepting of the fact you intentionally defrauded her customers which was implied on her social media accounts and by omission on her menu. You also have admitted you actively avoided detection from the corporate offices of Popeyes. You knew your actions were improper.
Expect a statement from Popeyes, and a visit from the Dept. of Public Health.
Experience: Husband is a California Attorney who has an uncle who is counsel for a large Fast Food Brand and I am a chef certified as a ServSafe Manager. This hit close to home which is why I commented.
Lauren, spot on assessment. Bravo.
Lauren,
Think you’ll find this interesting… https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y7zB0lfP0_E
FoodBeast went undercover to Sweet Dixie. Most important part to note starts at 1:26. Kimberly told them (after they’re eating the chicken), “You know that’s Popeye’s right!?” She then said that she had to “double fry it” to get it back to the right temperature to sell it because the health inspector was there that morning. So wait, didn’t all this start because she can’t fry on premise because she doesn’t have a fryer. There’s some shady happenings going on for real. I’m not believing one word that comes out of Kim’s mouth. Check the video out it’s pretty awesome.
More importantly, all of my friends who have shellfish allergies can’t eat at Popeyes because they serve both fried chicken and shellfish. It’s a good thing that seemingly no one has had a horrific allergic reaction yet. This is life threatening information to not share with someone.
Dear Kim,
I assume you’ll be reading this drinking malt liquor out of a champagne flute because (lol) you responded in the comments section of a story about your unethical business practices. Expect a call from the president, probaly, to give you a job in his cabinet and the metal of freedom for how you handled “the dishonest media.” This would be even more hilarious if not for your mutilation of English grammar. Learn how to use a dash, you butt-head.
So, if everyone else is doing it, that doesn’t mean it’s ok. Unless everyone else is jumping off a bridge. In that case you should, only because “Popeye’s chicken is the shiznit” in hell (as we all learned from “Little Nikki”) and not because I want you to jump off a bridge.
Your crime was petty. That crime was (and is) disregarding YOUR customers feelings. Feelings are a big part of hospitality. If you’re not a “people person” don’t work in customer service. I suspect that with your ruthlessness and mild disdain for transparency you would flourish in the financial services or pharmaceuticals industries.
I say all this because you do have good ideas. Eating Popeye’s for lunch is a good idea. I haven’t had a craving for Popeye’s in years. Now I’m jonesing for a big iconic box of the stuff. I would like to thank you for reminding me of how good Popeye’s really is.
This PR issue seems to be heading in the same direction as the Amanda’s Baking Company debacle. Time to just apologize, change the menu, or start over.
As a fairly frequent Yelper, I understand the hate thrown our way, because I’ve read THOSE reviews too and shook my head. But Popeyegate is exactly the service that Yelp provides customers. No one would have had a clue without the platform given Tyler H.
Regardless of which side of this you fall on, a poor response from a business is important to note. No one wants to be treated like a chump. And every person who paid the markup on those chicken fingers was had.
… LOl, Every time I see anything about this chick I laugh. I’m sorry but Do you have a stove? If so, Get a cast iron skillet, put some oil in the bitch and fry you some damn chicken. No way to justify this shit. Don’t act as if you doing some authentic cuisine but can’t figure out how to fry chicken…
The owner’s toxic comments on Yelp were bound to do her in. Amazed that she lasted this long with theMediocre food and the terrible attitude.
Can’t stand Popeye’s Chicken!! Bland and dry!! Tried it once and never again!!
The internet flash mob mentality is a sick mentality indeed. Its very corporate. Somehow 98% of these people are offended or hurt by a small business owner doing their thing. All business should be small business. How quick we are to judge!!
Are they connected to the Mental health village close by?