Photo: Daniel Maurer and Popeyes
Our love of Popeyes is no secret — we’ve mourned the death of the Louisiana chain’s founder and celebrated its birth in Chinatown (you can see our framed post on that location's front counter). But here’s a change we’re not sure we can accept — in the past days, Popeyes has started using a “diamond bread” for its Chicken Deluxe sandwich, which happens to be one of our favorite things in the world. Don’t get us started on this sandwich — a hulking chicken fillet that’s marinated in onions, peppers, and garlic, and breaded in cayenne flour that's fried to a delectable crisp. Not only is it one of the spiciest and moistest of the fast-food chicken sandwiches, it’s the only one we’ll eat. The round po-boy-style bun has always given this thing quite a heft, easily containing the tomato wheel and the full leaf of lettuce — but this new diamond bread is a different story. How do you eat a sandwich that’s shaped like this? Would you turn a Whopper bun into a dodecahedron? We have nothing against innovation &mdash we’re okay with the new Loaded Chicken Wrap and its calorie-happy cheddar-cheese tortilla, and we'll even swallow Popeyes' oxymoronic new motto, "Louisiana fast" — but this is, purely and simply, a case of fixing something that wasn’t broken. And if there’s one thing New Orleaneans are good at, it’s leaving things be. Popeyes, we beg of you — give us back our daily bread!
