New Restaurants Coming to Belton including Popeye’s

Two of America's favorite restaurants in two very distinctive culinary specialties – namely fried chicken and roast beef – are coming to Belton in the same general vicinity. And I for one am a very happy boy!

First of all, one of the restaurants going up on Central Avenue is, yes, Arby's. They're very name is based on the initials of roast beef itself, R and B.  (Some folks say that Arby's name is an anagram for "America's Roast Beef, Yessir.'  Pardon my faux French, but that's friggin stupid )  Until a few weeks ago, I had never eaten at an Arby's save for one time on vacation in Florida with my dad went and picked up sandwiches for everybody. I was in single digits then and I don't remember anything about it. A few weeks ago, I did sample the Arby's in downtown temple. Not only was the service extremely courteous, the sandwich itself was very tasty.

I'm not one of these food snobs who pooh-pooh's chain restaurants or fast food joints. If a chain restaurant can come up with a distinctive meal or better yet entire menu, I'll eat there all the time.  I don't believe franchising is a bad word, never have. A good example: Planet Hollywood was in the words of Jackie Gleason the biggest bomb…  and yet they came up with the idea of pan frying chicken in Cap'n Crunch cereal. Absolutely brilliant. People are attempting to replicate this recipe all over the Internet. Sometimes when lightning strikes, it strikes hard.

In the early 1970s in Arabi, Louisiana, lightning struck very very hard in the world of fried chicken.  Restauranteur Al Copeland opened a little shack of a restaurant called Chicken on the Run.  After changing the name to Popeyes Famous Fried Chicken and Biscuits, and kicking up the spice to New Orleans-worthy levels of heat and flavor, Copeland had a hit on his hands.  As his brother Gil Copeland had successfully franchised Tastee Donuts out of New Orleans, Copeland followed suit with locations in Baton Rouge. He then expanded into the Texas market which helped him crack open the fried chicken market in the rest of the United States. Given the influence of Tex-Mex food, Lone Star palates iembraced the hot chick in immediately Admittedly, the spicy chicken served in Louisiana is not as spicy as you would receive in Peoria or the other parts of the USA;  you actually have to request "Louisiana hot "chicken, and don't be surprised if they look at you like you're flirting with death in doing so.

In the 44 years since Copeland's Popeyes opened, it has taken on a special status among Louisianans.  In New Orleans at Thanksgiving and Christmas, Popeyes sells fried turkeys and trimmings which are extremely popular.   On TV station WWL channel 4 -  a CBS-TV affiliate revered by New Orleanians as it was founded and formerly owned by no less an authority as the Catholic Church - weatherman Don Westbrook hosted the station's block of Popeye cartoons (Popeye & Pals) by inviting kids from schools and scout packs to come to the studios in the French Quarter and partake of free Popeyes chicken while the cartoons rolled. Many Saints fans, myself included, consider Popeyes chicken a pregame ritual: they can't win without it. Maybe that's why they've been so crappy in this preseason,  I haven't had time to drive to Harker Heights to get those spicy breasts and Cajun rice.  And speaking of rice, with red beans and rice being a Monday Louisiana ritual, it's never more than a trip to the drive-through away thanks to Popeyes. Happily, I won't have to make that 20 minute drive: near the new Arby's in Belton, there will be an equally new Popeyes. The same Belton that's home to the Incredible barbecue of Miller's Smokehouse will soon be feeling the heat and my appreciation.

Insert Rebel Yell here!

Now I need to clarify something about Louisiana chicken. Popeyes is awesome as is Baton Rouge's own chicken finger chain, Raising Canes.  The tastes at two different styles. Canes is exclusively chicken fingers from white meat battered and fried fresh, served with a limited number of sides,  namely Texas toast, coleslaw and fries, that's it .  Popeyes is a traditional chicken restaurant with more spice and an expanded selection of Cajun sides.  What Keynes is to lunch, usually, Popeyes is to dinner. I don't see them as competitors,  except in Georgetown where the two restaurants are right next to each other! I have visited that canes location on numerous occasions, and pulling into the parking lot which the two restaurants share often presents me with the loyalty test I call the "Cajun conundrum."  Realizing that I came for Canes, I usually swerve in that direction and have never regretted it. I also realize that there is a Popeyes in Harker Heights and Killeen.

Soon, however, there will be no conundrum as each of these locations will be within driving distance. When I get the cravings for either, boom there I am! Can I get another Rebel Yell?!