Another day, another Popeyes restaurant has opened in Loudoun County — but the newest location has raised some eyebrows due to its construction.
The latest Popeyes — famous for its Louisiana-style fried chicken — opened earlier this week in Chantilly along Highway 50 at the intersection with Pleasant Valley Road in the Loudoun Crossroads commercial center.
That’s right next door to the new Silver Diner restaurant that opened in October. There is also supposed to be a Wawa gas station and convenience store built in the same retail center. (Or is it a 7-Eleven? There’s conflicting information.)
By our count, that puts us at seven Popeyes in the county, with many more nearby in places like Herndon and Reston. (The number would be at eight Popeyes, but the location inside the Dulles Town Center food court closed earlier this year.)
But there’s another interesting note about the new Popeyes off 50 — some local residents are convinced it was built backwards.
Unlike the Silver Diner next door that has its front entrance facing busy Route 50, the Popeyes has been built so its front is facing away from 50 and towards the entrance drive into the center.
Folks on social media have jokingly suggested that the builders got the plans turned around and that Popeyes is showing its… ahem… backside … to drivers on the adjacent highway.
“Anyone else think they built the new Popeyes facing the wrong direction?” one poster wrote on Facebook. “First restaurant in the area to ‘moon’ people driving on Route 50,” another person said.
The Burn spoke with a staff member at the new Popeyes and asked about it facing a different direction than the Silver Diner. “This is Popeyes,” he replied. “This is the way it was supposed to be built.”
Regardless, the bone-in fried chicken, the Cajun fries, and the famous Spicy Chicken Sandwich are all the same no matter which way the restaurant is facing.