Al Copeland, the founder, named it after Popeye Doyle from The French Connection. Copeland was a white guy who dressed like a racecar driver. He founded it in 1972–I didn’t know they had been around THAT long, I thought they were from the 80s or 90s. I also thought the upbeat black lady they had in the commercials a few years back was the founder. Uh, I got that wrong. In response to Brian’s post, I did know about the Popeye’s joke in the movie Bad Boys which is aimed at a black man but that is unfortunate.

Popeye’s is still reasonably good, I think–I never get bone-in chicken from them, just regular and spicy tenders and both still hit the spot. I think their red beans and rice and mashed potatoes and cajun gravy are good sides and that the cajun fries are decent but not as good as Five Guys. KFC is terrible now, they don’t even do the extra crispy tenders and only the Sweet Lightning Mountain Dew is a reason to enter the building.

I have no idea what people think is so great about Raisin’ Cane’s; it tasted fine, but I’m stunned at the success of a place whose menu only has five items.