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Restaurant slammed on Yelp after getting called out for selling Popeyes chicken

Yelp is great for checking out what the community thinks of a certain restaurant. It's also great for a healthy helping of drama.

Sweet Dixie Kitchen in Long Beach, California is at the center of a controversy after a disappointed customer revealed that its chicken sandwich was created using Popeyes chicken. The drama has since been called Popeyegate.

The whole thing went down when Yelper Tyler H from Los Angeles posted a 1-star review claiming he spotted employees bringing boxes of Popeyes chicken into the kitchen. 

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Image: screenshot/yelp

"I wanted to believe that this was just a snack for the workers, but alas it was not. I ordered the Chicken and Waffles to see whether or not they were serving Popeyes to their customers. I thought the chicken tasted suspiciously like Popeyes and was also rather stale," Tyler wrote.

His server admitted the restaurant does in fact use Popeyes chicken on its $12.50 chicken sandwich. They then comped his meal, although Tyler did have other complaints, aside from the fast food chicken. 

Owner Kimberly Sanchez decided to respond to the allegations, and confirmed that the restaurant does in fact use Popeyes chicken.

"We PROUDLY SERVE Popeyes spicy tenders- the best fried chicken anywhere and from New Orleans," she wrote.

Image: SCREENSHOT/YELP

OK, Sanchez. While Popeyes does taste good, calling it the "best fried chicken anywhere" is absolutely offensive. 

Sanchez then went on to list a variety of other ingredients they outsource, which is completely and totally normal for a restaurant. However, outsourcing fast food fried chicken and reselling it on a sandwich for $12.50 is at the very least, misleading, considering it was not noted on the menu.

Sanchez claims the restaurant doesn't have the ability to fry chicken on its premises, which is also completely fair. But, again, misleading that it wasn't noted on the menu. 

It also doesn't help that the restaurant hashtagged #scratch, #local, and #homemade on a picture of its fried chicken sandwich last month. 

It's bomb and we have it!!!! The ultimate in breakfast or lunch- our Biscuitwitch!!! #sweetdixiekitchen #scratch #opennow #neighborhoodjoint #familyowned #conventioncenterlongbeach #cozycafe #biscuitlove #chefslife #presstelegram #ocweekly #3rdandelm #dogfriendlypatio #localsspot #molinahealthcare #musictastesgood #dlba #sconesandjam #homemade #localflavor

A post shared by The Sweet Dixie Kitchen (@sweetdixiekitchen) on Sep 8, 2017 at 8:25am PDT

To make matters worse, Sweet Dixie's Facebook description claimed that they made everything in house.

"Everything is made here- right down to our bacon ham and siracha[sic]  Stay Local- Stay Happy- and always Eat Well," the description read, according to a screengrab from FoodBeast.

The about section has since been updated, and even includes a jab at the chicken they import.

Tyler later called out the hypocrisy of the restaurant's reasoning for using Popeyes with an update to his review:

After Brian Addison from the local blog Longbeachize and some other outlets called out the controversy, Sanchez took to the company's Facebook page to vent, and attempt to justify their use of outsourced foods with comparisons that didn't exactly add up. 

Here's the full text from the Facebook post below, just in case it goes offline. 

Since Popeyesgate broke, both negative and positive reviews have been posted to the restaurant's Yelp page. One person comically pointed out that Sweet Dixie could have been using Popeyes for a long time without anybody noticing. 

Image: screenshot/yelp

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