NYC Gets a Taste of Deep Fried Religion: Chick-fil-A Opens in Manhattan

[LiberalElite]

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2015/10/04/nyc-gets-a-taste-of-deep-fried-religion-chick-fil-a-opens-in-manhattan.html

-snip-
It’s Chick-fil-A, is everybody happy?”

“Yeah, man, H-A-P-P-Y!”

New Yorkers are not known to be the happiest bunch, but they didn’t turn their noses up at this call-and-answer chant orchestrated by the Chick-fil-A team.

Thousands of uninitiated New Yorkers--yes, thousands--stopped by the grand opening of the fried chicken chain’s first outlet in New York City on Saturday to quickly discover that buying a chicken sandwich from the Atlanta-based fast food joint can feel like attending a cultish pep rally.
-snip-

[Recursion]

1. 37th and 6th?

Wow. They're certainly not just dipping their toes in.

[MANative]

27. About two blocks from my office. I definitely won't be visiting.

Hundreds of other choices in the neighborhood. Heck, even the tourist traps would be a better bet.

[One of the 99]

2. Every sandwich is made with hate nt

[LukeFL]

3. Every sandwich is delicious

And their lemonades is 100 natural. The restaurant chain is all over in Florida

[Trajan]

31. Right wing business owners DON'T get my business

No sir ... They have to get YOU in the store to make their profits that they can spend to promote their hateful conservative philosophies ... All while you chew that delightfully chopped and formed chicken patty with a $&@#- eatin grin on your face ...

Not one thin dime from me ...

[cwydro]

4. The lines back up through several major intersections here in Charlotte every day at lunch.

I don't eat chicken usually, so it's not a place I would go.

But everyone loves it. I'm gay, but that wouldn't stop me from eating there if I wanted to. Pretty much everyone I know, gay and straight, LOVES the place.

[RKP5637]

7. I wonder what they do that other fast food places don't that draws such a crowd.

I've never been in one and definitely not since their gay crap. I've heard their food is good and likely most people go there just to eat, not to make a statement about gays, and likely the employees are there just to have a job and are not necessarily gay bashers.

[LiberalElite]

10. when visiting Fla. I got their

waffle fries (I'm a vegetarian). They were good. But that was before the gay controversy and I wouldn't consume anything from there now.

[RKP5637]

12. I don't see why some corps. focus on controversial topics than just on their products.

It is bound to have an impact on P&L, and an impact that is likely hard to measure.

[cwydro]

13. Sure hasn't hurt them here.

I've had one of their sandwiches and it was pretty good I guess. I'm a bad judge because I just don't like to eat chicken.

Some of my best friends are chickens!

Here they are:

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[RKP5637]

14. K&R! n/t

[RKP5637]

16. Waffle fries - sounds good.

[MADem]

23. PICKLE JUICE....that's what I'm told is the secret, anyway!

It is some seriously tender chicken...and tasty.

[RKP5637]

5. Greasy chicken on a bun. Gross!

[MADem]

6. The first time my family ever ate at a chik-fil-a, our host, who picked up the tab, was a family

friend of many, many years who is gay, old, out and pragmatic. He agreed that they are idiots in terms of their politics but he likes the food. has always liked the food (he's from down south) and won't apologize for it. We went to one of the original restaurants, the politically incorrect Dwarf House. We went at an off time, and got a load of attention from the staff (in a nice way).

I've only had two meals there, I am not much of a fast food person and there is no CFA franchise close at hand to me. We ordered a sample of pretty much everything and everyone took turns taking bites of this or that. The okra was surprisingly credible for a fast food place. The chicken was just ... delicious.

I think the reason that people go to that place is because they do the buttermilk and pickle juice thing with the chicken--it's damn tasty. They don't go for the "anti-gay" or the "Bible stuff." They go for the food.

[RKP5637]

18. That's what I think too! "I think the reason that people go to that place is

because they do the buttermilk and pickle juice thing with the chicken--it's damn tasty. They don't go for the "anti-gay" or the "Bible stuff." They go for the food."

In fact I bet a lot of people that go there really might not know about the gay stuff, but if they do, are likely just going there for the food, not some kind of anti-gay statement.

[MADem]

22. Our gay host KNEW. And he made no bones about knowing, which was kind of funny.

He pretty much educated us on the issue, the attitudes, the religiosity, sitting in the booth having our meal! He joked that he 'limits' his visits (to about once a week, he said) because of their attitudes, and said they were doing him a favor because he could easily get fat on the food if he had it too often. He works in the heavy equipment/construction industry (he's in upper management but he knows his way around job sites--he looks tough as nails) so he looks like he is capable of burning calories.

I know that the CFA business hires gay workers, so they don't discriminate in terms of employment--just attitude.

Since there's maybe one or two in all of MA, I don't have to worry about being led into temptation--and up north they don't do all the southern side dishes that are also delicious.

[RKP5637]

24. Yep, the southern side dishes are so incredibly delicious. Now grits, count me out! ... but the

ones I get I get hooked on are dumplings and gravy, I guess it's pork or hamburger in the gravy. I try to limit myself, but at breakfast I've been known to go back for seconds and thirds. My heritage is New England, but I do love the southern food.

[MADem]

25. I have a brother who loves the grits.

He'll have 'em any which way--with butter and pepper, with maple syrup, he's never met a grit he doesn't like! And don't get between him and biscuits and gravy--you'll be trampled! And chicken fried steak? I mean, come on--that's just obscene...but he'll polish one of those off in two shakes of a lamb's tail!!!

The food is horrible for modern lifestyles--if we all went out in the fields and were raking and hoeing and plowing and planting all day, we'd have no trouble burning off all those calories--but we don't move as a culture like we used to.

But ummmmm, that food is gooooooood!

[RKP5637]

29. Yep, LOL, you can get all your calories and fat for the week in one wonderful and

incredibly good meal!

[kwassa]

8. Breaded chicken on bread. Wow.

I don't get it.

[jmowreader]

42. It is what it is

[Moliere]

9. Good luck with that

In that location and with the fried chicken wars in full effect here in NYC it's going to be nothing but tourists.

For the record with David Chang's Fuku, Hill Country chicken and Shake Shack among many others, you should be asked to leave NYC if you choose that hate filled bigoted CFA

[Dorian Gray]

17. Fuku and Shake Shack are awesome

And then there is Blue Ribbon Fried Chicken downtown, too.

I've never had Chik Fil A. I'm sure it's a great fried chicken sandwich, but why would I go out of my way when I can go to any of the other places you've listed just as easily.

(Never tried Hill Country chicken.... should give it a go.)

[Moliere]

20. How could I have forgotten Blue Ribbon? Also delicious

[sir pball]

30. root & bone puts all of them to absolute shame.

I'm a bit of a deep-fried-bird junkie so I've had them all, repeatedly, and while all the places that you guys have mentioned are quite good (as is Pies 'n' Thighs), root & bone is literally in a class by itself, the best fried chicken I have, and probably ever will ever, eaten. Sweet tea brined, dusted with lemon zest, with Tabasco honey dip. "Religious experience" may not be an exaggeration.

[Moliere]

32. Will have to check out Root and Bone

I haven't hit it yet. Pies is also very good. Like I said, the fried chicken sandwich wars are upon us

[Bluenorthwest]

11. NYC has real friend chicken, this is Industrial Chicken. I don't do the HFCS thing at all, but this

list of ingredients for a chicken sandwich is rather lengthy and should be a red flag to anyone who knows how to make their own damn fried chicken...
"Chicken (100% natural whole breast filet, seasoning [salt, monosodium glutamate, sugar, spices, paprika], seasoned coater [enriched bleached flour {bleached wheat flour, malted barley flour, niacin, iron, thiamine mononitrate, riboflavin, folic acid}, sugar, salt, monosodium glutamate, nonfat milk, leavening {baking soda, sodium aluminum phosphate, monocalcium phosphate}, spice, soybean oil, color {paprika}], milk wash [water, whole powdered egg and nonfat milk solids], peanut oil [fully refined peanut oil with TBHQ and citric acid added to preserve freshness and dimethylpolysiloxane an anti-foaming agent added]), bun (enriched flour [wheat flour, malted barley flour, niacin, reduced iron, thiamin mononitrate {Vitamin B1}, riboflavin {Vitamin B2}, folic acid], water, high fructose corn syrup, yeast, contains 2% or less of each of the following: liquid yeast, soybean oil, nonfat milk, salt, wheat gluten, soy flour, dough conditioners [may contain one or more of the following: mono- and diglycerides, calcium and sodium stearoyl lactylates, calcium peroxide], soy flour, amylase, yeast nutrients [monocalcium phosphate, calcium sulfate, ammonium sulfate], calcium propionate added to retard spoilage, soy lecithin, cornstarch, butter oil [soybean oil, palm kernel oil, soy lecithin, natural and artificial flavor, TBHQ and citric acid added as preservatives, and artificial color]), pickle (cucumbers, water, vinegar, salt, lactic acid, calcium chloride, alum, sodium benzoate and potassium sorbate [preservatives], natural flavors, polysorbate 80, yellow 5, blue 1)."

Just like Grandma used to make!
Their 'sauces' are HFCS with flavorings. Yummy!

[DFW]

19. Thank goodness they are required to disclose it

HFCS to me is a good as a sign saying "turn around and run in the other direction."

[closeupready]

21. Doesn't seem like a healthy list at all.

Then again, "Southern" cooking and "healthy" are oxymoronic.

[Dorian Gray]

15. We've got Fuku

by David Chang. We don't need Chik Fil A.

(NYC)

[edhopper]

26. And Hill Country Fried Chicken

really good too.

I'm staying away from this garbage.

[hrmjustin]

28. I sure as hell won't be eating there.

[Budgies Revenge]

33. It's a shame

I did like their waffle fries, and the chicken nuggets were always good, but I haven't stepped foot in a Chick-fil-A since the "Appreciation Day" they held in 2012. I remember driving past the restaurant and seeing a line out the door and around the building. I was so sad and felt physically ill to see all these people--young, old, families, smiling and joking, holding balloons--people from my town who were in effect declaring that they hated me. That my life, my feelings, my wish to be with someone was wrong, and that I was not only wrong, but an "abomination". Maybe not personally, maybe not put in those exact words, but that's the message I felt at that moment.

I'm not naive. Growing up in the south, you hear this train of thought and you hear it so often that you almost learn to tune it out. But there was something about seeing all those people standing in that line that made it more real and ugly than any amount of slurs or "jokes" ever could.

[Snobblevitch]

34. I ate at Chick-fil-A a few times in Arizona and thought 'meh'.

They have a few locations in Minnesota so I tried it again. It was ok, but I still don't get the enthusiasm.

[Skittles]

38. agreed

[Logical]

39. I love it. Olive Garden too! Nt

[Snobblevitch]

40. Ha! You're trolling me...

[ileus]

35. We call it chicken crack...it's addictive.

[madinmaryland]

36. Uhmmm.. WTF? Manhattan has an Olive Garden in midtown..

with breast feeding mothers with screaming children while the dogs pee all over the place.

:_

[Calista241]

37. Wonder if New Yorkers will be shocked the place isn't open on Sunday. n/t

[aikoaiko]

41. LOL. It will be shocking. Chic-fil-A also demands outstanding customer service from employees.

That too will be shocking.

I love their food (on the fast food continuum, its a 9/10), but I avoid the place because of the owner is an outspoken gay-hater.