Okay, this week is a little change of pace for both the blog and for this year-long sandwich tour. I decided this week to go to a chain restaurant and try a sandwich there. I figure since we’ve got a whole year to go through, it might be interesting to throw a chain sandwich into the mix every once in a great while and see how it fares against all the locally made sandwiches we’re eating on this tour. The first chain restaurant I thought we’d try on our sandwich tour is Chick-fil-A. This chain restaurant opened up a store over by the Northwoods Mall shortly after I moved back to Peoria in 2012 and I was amazed at how people were lining up for a chicken sandwich after the grand opening. I was curious but I’ve never gone there to try one of their chicken sandwiches because, well, how great can a chicken sandwich be, after all? I guess we’ll find out today as we head over to Chick-fil-A and see what the cluck is going on over there!
Here we are at Chick-fil-A, over by the Northwoods Mall right off of Sterling Avenue. While I really don’t like to get political here on MBIP, I do feel like I need to address something that caused Chick-fil-A some controversial press back in 2012, when this store opened up here in Peoria. Basically, Dan Cathy, the President and C.O.O. of Chick-fil-A came out against same sex marriage. Here’s his quote on that subject in the picture of him below.
That quote opened up a whole Pandora’s box of press for his billion dollar family and restaurant. Personally, I really could care less what this guy’s view is on anything, after all, he’s just a guy who looks like a corporate asshole and who kills huge amounts of chickens and serves them between bread to millions of people for a living. But to go public with such a statement is pretty stupid in my opinion—I mean, why would you want to alienate any type of group when you have a business that’s trying to shove a chicken sandwich down the throat of anyone who can scrape up enough money to buy one? Since all this went down, he has back-pedaled and said they’re going to shut up about this subject and they’ve pretty much stopped contributing the millions to anti-gay groups that they were before all this made the newspapers and it came out they they were funding anti-gay groups, but let’s just move on past this. After all, The Daily Beast says it’s okay to eat there again! Personally, I never boycotted them because of all of that, I boycotted them because of the claim they make in the next picture...
Check this out, according to this sign on the building, this is the home of: “The Original Chicken Sandwich.” Let me just pause here for a moment and scream out the following words: “What the fuck?” From the moment I saw this sign it really bugged me and I’ve obsessed over it ever since! I mean chicken sandwiches have been being made for as long as there’s been chickens around and people learned to kill them and put them between two pieces of bread! This business was founded in 1967 and I’m guessing that there were plenty of chicken sandwiches made and served before they ever opened up their very first door. I’m wondering who would ever expect anyone to believe that this is the home of, “the original chicken sandwich?” Oh, probably the same type of pompous and arrogant assholes who expect people to actually give a flying fuck about their antiquated religious views on marriage.
Okay, enough of that, let’s go in and begin week number 18 of our sandwich tour.
Once inside I spoke with a manager who told me I couldn’t take pictures of the counter or of any of the people working back there, but it was fine to take photos of the restaurant and of my food, as long as I was going to buy a sandwich. She was pleasant enough about it and so here’s a shot of the restaurant from the front counter.
I have to say the place is very clean and I was impressed with how neatly all the condiments are placed in the condiment area. It’s kind of an OCD moment of Zen!
Okay, here we are at my table with my order. I got a chicken sandwich, an iced tea and an order of the waffle fries. I also got a couple of packs of mustard and a little tub of “Chick-fil-A sauce.” I’m guessing you put this stuff on the chicken sandwich. It certainly has a long list of ingredients for such a little tub of sauce!
Now it’s time to unveil the signature sandwich here at Chick-fil-A, it kind of looks like any other type of breaded chicken sandwich I’ve ever seen at restaurants.
I decided to try and spice things up by putting some of the Chick-fil-A sauce on the sandwich, but it wouldn’t come out of the tub. As I tried to squeeze some of it out, one thought kept repeating itself in my mind: “This looks like a sperm sample from Carrot Top!” Now I’ve really lost my appetite, but I’ll keep moving along here in spite of feeling somewhat nauseous...oh the things I do for the sake of an MBIP post!
I got a knife and scraped some of the Carrot Top sperm on the sandwich and then put some mustard on there too and I tried to put this out of my mind as I took a bite of the sandwich. The sandwich really didn’t have much taste, the bun was steamed, which leads me to wonder if the words, “steaming buns” have ever been used in a Chick-fil-A review before?
This is all I could eat of the sandwich. It wasn’t the worst thing in the world because the worst thing in the world would be a sandwich that Carrot Top actually jerked off on in front of your very eyeballs, but this was pretty close. All in all, just another example of why you should eat local, I mean as far as I know, Carrot Top has never been to Peoria, so I think we’re safe from his orange ejaculate topping off any of sandwiches at any of the local joints around here!
Sandwich Rating
One half Dagwood Bumsteads—Donnelley’s Irish Pub is right across the street, I suggest that the next time you think about getting a sandwich you go there instead! The lesson learned today: Local businesses beats chains, every time!
Chick-fil-A
4518 N Sterling Avenue
Peoria
309-682-6246
Related Posts: A Year In The Life Of A Sandwich @ Jimbo’s Jumbo, Grandpa John’s Rib Shack, Khaki Jack’s, Blue Duck Barbecue Tavern, Green Gables Bar And Grill, Kenny’s Westside Pub, No Wake Zone, Picco’s Pit Bar-B-Que And Steakhouse, The Fox Pub, Leonardo’s/La Gondola, Castle’s Patio Inn, Kuchie’s On The Water, The 50’s Diner, Donnelly’s Pub, The Mix Sandwich Works, Nacho Mama’s andJim's Steakhouse.