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.
But what if… I were to purchase fast food and disguise it as my own cooking?
That’s how you get Aurora Borealis in your kitchen.
At this time of year? At this time of day! In this part of the country! Localized entirely within your kitchen!?
Yes
Who among us has not? Let he who is without guilt serve the first dish.
Typical Plankton. Always plotting to get the Krusty Krab secret recipe.
“I thought you said we were having steamed clams.”
“Oh no. I said steamed hams!”
Is this wrong because it’s on retail level? Because above retail level this kind of rebrandind is business as usual.
I think worse is that companies buy meat from Brazil, New Zealand, East-Europe and China, pack it and rebrand it domestically and sell it as domestic meat.
People were upset about this because it seemed deceptive.
The first two words on the yelp page for their now-closed restaurant are “House made”
“Most of my stuff from here is made from scratch” said the owner.
So people who have that expectation in mind are clearly going to be upset when they find it was pre-made all along.
It’s about honesty and expectation.
If I go to some nationwide chain restaurant then I obviously expect all their breaded chicken is coming out the freezer in bags - and that’s fine because it’s not deceptive.
If I go to a small restaurant which strongly implies in their wording and branding that the food is all made from scratch, then it’s deceptive when it isn’t.
Exactly. Who did Popeye’s buy their chicken from?
A company that they have an agreement with to allow rebranding of the food. Which I doubt this place had.
I don’t need an agreement from my burger place to sell a burger they made for me to someone else without being obligated to tell them it came from my burger place. There’s a lot of things that are iffy with this approach, but rebranding agreements aren’t one of them.
It’s not the chicken (as in, the piece of a dead bird) that’s the issue. You can get that anywhere. When I go to a restaurant or make something for myself, I’m looking to explore different flavors, cooking techniques, and ways of using that food. If I go to a mom and pop Italian restaurant, I want their recipes. If they just reheated something from the Olive Garden I could get it fresh from there. And I wouldn’t have any way of knowing prior to ordering that that’s what I was getting.
Now, they’re not just serving a piece of chicken. They are transforming it into chicken and waffles. Maybe they came up with a waffle and stuff that perfectly complements the seasonings Popeyes uses. It gets murky, but I would think that a freshly fried piece of chicken is the centerpiece of the dish and I’d be pretty upset to get a reheated unoriginal piece like that.
You’re also getting ripped off because the restaurant owner is going to put a markup on the same exact product you could have gotten directly from the original restaurant.
Me. And I’d do it again.
From her?
I remember this - so weird. The owner claimed that it was just one “ingredient” that they used lol
