The chicken sandwich that’s so popular fights erupted when supplies ran out is on its way to Concord.
A Popeye’s fast-food restaurant will be arriving in the city next year at an empty commercial spot on Loudon Road.
The restaurant, best known for its fried chicken, will be built next to the Harbor Freight store located in the previous Toys R Us location.
“There has long been a plan to build another building there,” said Sam Durfee, senior planner for the city of Concord. No variances or special permission was required.
Durfee met with developers last week. He said they plan to pour the foundation before the ground freezes, and build the restaurant itself next spring.
It will be the third Popeye’s in New Hampshire.
Popeyes was founded in Louisiana in 1972 as a fried-chicken restaurant and is now owned by Restaurant Brands International, a Canadian firm. It has more than 3,450 restaurants worldwide, almost all of them owned by independent franchisers rather than the company itself.
It may be best known recently for a fried-chicken sandwich that it rolled out in 2019, spurred by the success of the Chick-fil-A chain. It quickly sold out across the country, producing stories of tussles at some eateries as people tried to get their hands on one.
This success has been attributed by some with launching “chicken wars” among fast-food restaurants, many of whom have rolled out their own variations of fried-chicken sandwiches – even McDonald’s, which had resisted selling fried chicken for the first half-century of its existence but changed its mind after admitting that its hamburger sales had been affected by the trend.
More recently Popeyes has announced that it will sell chicken nuggets that are made in the style of the popular chicken sandwich, but without the bun.
