Popeyes Fast Food opens in Milan: how is the chicken that everyone likes

There’s this thing about “Cajun» to fast food which is not easy to explain, nor to make the typical Milanese understand. What if Popeyes he cooks his own Cajun fried chicken it is easy to guess that it will not go unnoticed. His is an American story as the cinema tells it, between fortunes and failures, and like all American stories fast&furious (but the marinade is slow: a good 12 hours!) if you tell them well they end up resembling the plot of a Tarantino filmbut here with the jazz soundtrack of trumpets, trombones, saxophones and drums on parade in New Orleans.

Popeyes so it’s here, it’s in Milan, an orange corner that stands out in the fog that has returned to the city after years of unjustified absence and is preparing for the opening with unusual sober prudence. Opening a fast food restaurant is a bit like putting your name on the scene and in Via De Amicis, Popeyes arrives well-established. In Milan, the store is the first in Italy with a view to a global expansion strategy which already boasts over 4,300 restaurants in more than 40 countries and in Italy it expects 50 in 3 years (the second in the Lombard capital will open in Corso Buenos Aires).

Those who already know it (and therefore already know everything about Cajun) are preparing to face the queues eager to taste the Cajun for the first time. chicken sandwich which is said to have even made New Yorkers lose their mindsto French tourists visiting the NOLA’s French Quarter (the local acronym for New Orleans) and to the young people who rediscovered the trip to Chiasso to find the Popeyes closest to the border in Switzerland. Queuing is a serious matter in Milan: you line up for a show at the Piccolo or for a do-it-yourself day, but also for Supreme or for them bubble tea or the Dutch fries. Or, as they hope at Popeyes, for a spicy fried chicken sandwich.

Photo by Gabriele Nava

So to us in the information barrage of communication, on standby behind the windows with reserved entrance for the Milanese preview with the bundles in hand, the curious rejected for a moment distracted by the works on the M4 risk the ritual question that was once asked to who came out of the cinema: “How is it?” to those who have already tasted the house specialties.

Via De Amicis, New Orleans

Let’s recap, Popeyes has arrived in Italy with all the American hype: chicken that is almost perfectly golden, crunchy nuggets, tenders that from November 14th, opening day, are preparing to compete cheerfully with the classic Milanese rib in the version with chicken.

Photo by Gabriele Nava

Popeyes is then like a chef who has traveled halfway around the world and now presents himself as a talented young man who is playing for everything on a stage that few, fearful of disfiguring or of going out in the Champions League preliminaries, want to tread, as if it were a kind of like Lil Wayne who challenges Lazza at the Sanremo Festival with the anxiety that he will be heard with the typical Lombard disdain «Another fast food restaurant? We didn’t miss it.” of those who, however, do not give up trying even just to be able to express, as a true or presumed connoisseur, his personal final sentence.

Because now even for fast food Milan, after all, is not an easy city for those coming from far away, let alone for those coming from Louisiana, but there is always a chance. To be honest, Popeyes, born to satiate cowboys and women desperate housewives of the TV series, has a slightly vintage aftertaste. And in Milan, if we know it well enough, this aftertaste will be liked, as it has always been hungry for novelty.

And here we need the magic touch: in a city where everything that shines too much sooner or later oxidises, Popeyes is a bet that sparkles like the famous beads of New Orleans. The truth is that when you sit there, on the teal colored chairs, under the chandeliers with the streamers, with the colored tray, the ranch sauces and the light that filters from the carnival mask of the outdoor area, you feel like you are in a pulp story American à la Anne Rice: fantasy, noir, gothic, horror, B-movie… It won’t be Bourbon Street, via De Amicis, and it won’t rain necklaces from the balconies (but who knows, surprises will be expected on the opening day and a jazz band!) but we are already talking about this chicken with a seriousness worthy of a degree thesis. There are those who praise the crunchiness of the breading, those who praise the juiciness of the chicken, those who praise the spicy taste of the sauce, Milan will certainly now have a place where it is permissible to lick your fingers and feel – for a handful of minutes – on the banks of the sea Mississippi.

And it matters little if the first thought flies to Popeye (which we say for Gen Z is the translation of the sailor Popeye with the pipe and the muscular biceps), which has something to do with it and has nothing to do with it because for years the comic character was adopted as a mascot where now instead we find a proud cockerel whose name is Poppy – but let us remove your doubt there is not a trace of spinach on the menu – when Al Copeland, the founder, has instead always claimed to have rather inspired by the character of Gene Hackman in “French Connection” (hereinafter “The French Connection”): that Jimmi “Popeye” Doyle, a tough detective who is most apt if it is true that the “Chicken Sandwich War” has sparked real competition between the main American fast food chains.

Discovering the menu that speaks Cajun

The Cajunthen, we said, it is a combination of flavours, smells and colors typical in the southern states where traditions of peoples from Africa and India have mixed with the culinary art of French-speaking Canadians deported to Louisiana, giving life to a taste that marries the caramelized sweetness of sugar with the spiciness of chili pepper and the intense aromas of spices in in the midst of which the twelve of the top secret marinade recipe that everyone can have fun guessing starting from cumin, coriander, turmeric, fenugreek and exaggerating with ginger, cardamom, paprika and cinnamon.

Photo by Gabriele Nava

Inside, Popeyes is a mix of bright lightsan unmistakable and unique taste, which we find in the brightly colored furnishings and for us who have had exclusive access to the kitchens capable of giving the right sprint so that every command is fulfilled in deference to the goddess of speed but without ever descending into frenzy. Everything is orchestrated to serve what has been defined by some customers as «the best breading ever». The Popeyes dishes are colorful and abundant, a slightly exaggerated delight for the eyes and the heart: chicken sandwich also in a spicy version (and it is really very spicy), thin and well-spiced fries, boneless tenders and wings, great variety of unusual sauces (voodoo, mardi gras, creole…). Nor is he afraid of taking a gamble by offering Italians Bacon Cheese fries, onion petals and Louisiana Cheese Balls as snacks, all to be discovered before finishing with a Shake or a Pop cream.

And what will the Milanese do now? It seems a bit like the re-edition of a known ritual: a movement that goes from sushi to roasted coffee to a sandwich with or without crumbs, ancient or super new. Popeyes hopes to bring to the Cerchia dei Naviglia ritual perhaps not exactly new but with its own specific originality which in the city of the long, or rather very long, aperitif can also be the tasty alternative for taking a selfie with a morsel of fried chicken, in a sort of ironic rewriting of the Milanese nightlife.

The game is done. Popeyes lands with the promise of a small revolution: a real fast food. It’s simple, straightforward, a corner of Louisiana with a strong identity, call it spicy, call it hot. The real challenge, perhaps, will be to see it hold up to the next one «food trends». But for now, Popeyes seems to be enjoying its golden moment: As you bite into your sandwiches, you pass the news on like a precious secret. The truth is that Milan, in the heart of autumn, seems ready for the challenge.