hannnah

The parking lot's finally paved, they've got the sign on the front, and there's now a drive-through window - not sure if they're putting in a bank, a pharmacy, or planning on doing food drive through (although it did look more like a bank/pharmacy window.)

Any day next week except Monday would work for me, and the following week should be ok too.

Oh! My other favorite mispronunciation: "Faux gras". "But I wanted the REAL gras...."

Weirdest place I've run across bathroom attendants was Pocono Raceway in Pennsylvania. They claim to have the largest toilet facility in the world, and every group of stalls has an attendant. Not all of the attendants do the full mints/lotion/perfumes thing, but some of them did. On the whole, I'd definitely say their facilities were nicer than your average large-people-facility restroom, simply because there was someone there all the time to replace the toilet paper or call maintenance when needed!

In this case, I think it's a maturity issue - he hasn't grown out of the "I only eat x" stage. I'm not sure I ever had one of those, but I know they exist. And, I'll have to admit, I threw the restaurant choices out to the group knowing full well he'd either have to order something decent, or sit and pout - neither of the menus was conducive to burgerage.

That's one of the things I always thought was funny about Iron Chef - the pronunciations of French/English words. Foie gras was one of the best - it came out as sort of a one-and-a-half syllable thing, like "fwawww-gh".

We had a very persistent mouse around this time last year. Despite having 32 lb. of cat charging around the house, Mr. Mousie got in not just one, but three times (hubby wanted not to kill him, so I kept catching mousie and throwing him back outside). Day 1: Cats go nuts over something in basement. I go down to look, and there's the mouse. Feline brain trust is following mousie around - I imagine the conversation going something like this: "Hey! It's a THING! And it MOVES!" "It makes noises too! What happens if we poke it?" *poke* "It just stands there. *sniff* Hey. It doesn't smell like catnip! Bastard humans!" (cats stalk off, leaving me to retrieve the mouse and escort him off the premises.) Day 2: Cats again go nuts over something in the basement. Voila, mousie. This time, I put the mouse in a plastic tub to see if the cats can do something now that he's in a confined space. The tub has a rounded bottom, so when they tip it over it pops back upright. One cat puts a paw on the edge of the tub to get the mouse, the tub tips over slightly, cat removes paw to swat at mouse, tub pops back upright. Second cat does the same thing. This goes on for about half an hour until we stop laughing, and I escort mousie off the premises again - into the yard 2 houses down this time. Day 3: You guessed it - psycho cats charging around after mousie in the basement. Me: "Honey, it's back. I don't care how cute it is, it's vermin, and it's gonna die." This time, after 3 days, one of the cats manages to pop mousie upside the head and stun him. I scoop mousie up in the dustpan and take him outside, where he is disposed of via the traditional stomping method. Moral of the story: if there's a hole, the little bastards will get back in, even if you think you've closed it up or taken them far enough away that they can't come back.

At least in the first commercial, both the voiceover and on-screen make a point of the sandwich only having 5g fat. They show the nutrition facts label with a big red circle around "5g," last shot before they cut to the corporate logo.

There's a Thai Roma down the street from here - it appears to be open, and they post specials on a chalkboard out front. Seems like they tend to do 2 Thai and 2 Italian with no mixing. I haven't been in there yet - workload dictates me not getting out much for lunch.

Extremely picky eaters - gaaah! Case in point: a friend's SO won't eat anything but burgers and fries, with an occasional foray into steak. That's it. Most of the time, we end up going to some version of TGI McScratchy's, where there's enough variation on the menu that one doesn't have to order the same thing every time, except for him. This week, we ended up at a nice Asian fusion place downtown for a big pre-theater meal - it was a reasonably sized group, I'd thrown out several options, and Mr. Picky didn't express a preference. The rest of us had a perfectly lovely meal. They got stuck in traffic and were late getting there, so only had time to order appetizers - had they been on time, there was steak on the menu so he would have been fine. He ordered the pork and shrimp lumpia-style spring rolls, which I had at the beginning of the evening, and which were most excellent. He takes one bite, then sits there looking at them like a dog had taken a dump on his plate. Next time, he can go to TGI's in the next block while the rest of us have a nice dinner.

Shouldn't that be broiled again? Sorry, couldn't resist...

Because, quite honestly, that wasn't the point of the thread. The point, as I saw it, was "Is Pollo Campero any good or not?" I ate there, I provided my evaluation - in my opinion, it's good. I'm not worried about how often they change the grease at Popeye's because I don't like their chicken. I liked Pollo Campero's. As far as "standing in line for an hour," I did it for the amusement value, because it was a nice fall afternoon, and because I wanted to try the chicken. I don't see any reason to compare Pollo Campero to a restaurant that was open in the 50s or 60s that I've never even heard of, much less been to, or to decry the fact that it doesn't taste like my grandmother's fried chicken because I don't expect it to. If you want to address the downfall of society as exemplified by the fact that McDonald's french fries now taste like cardboard, by all means start another thread - I'm sure many of the folks here will be happy to weigh in with opinions.

That would be the chicken. Which was good, even if it wasn't cooked by someone walking uphill both ways in the snow with their ancestral cast-iron skillet.

Either date is good for us.

Can't do next Monday 'cause we have Eddie Izzard tickets. Y'all have fun though.

Oh, most definitely.

I think there's one in Sterling, but we haven't been there yet - sounds like we should.

Well, I'd have to say Pollo Campero is as good as its press. We (myself, hubby, and Malawry) spent about an hour and a half participating in the social event that was the line for chicken. By the time we got to the door, we were definitely ready to eat - you can smell the chicken outside, and it smells *good.* While in line, we were entertained by the Pollo Campero Chicken himself - including watching one of Fairfax County's finest push Señor Chicken out the door of the restaurant when he got stuck! There were also plenty of folks driving up to the line in the hopes that if they stared at it long enough, the line would disappear and they would be magically transported to Chickenvana. Needless to say, that didn't work. So, on to the food. The chicken: I'd have to say that this is the best mass-produced fried chicken I've ever had. It's got a nice, thin seasoned-flour crust surrounding particularly moist and flavorful meat. The chicken itself is injection-marinated at Pollo Campero Central, and the marinade gives the meat a really nice flavor. I fully expected the chicken to be spicy a la Popeye's, but it's not. The sides: Definitely a mixed bag. The Campero beans were the best - pintos cooked with a meat, onion, and spice mixture. The mashed potatoes are much better than KFC's - while they might still be instant, it's a better class of instant, with nice chickeny gravy. The "spicy" rice really wasn't spicy at all, unless you consider tomato a spice - it didn't have that chemical/cilantro taste that most chain restaurant Mexican rice has, though. The cole slaw didn't taste of much but mayonnaise. We didn't try the fries, but I was impressed to see them tossing an entire hopper of fries and replacing them with fresh; granted, they weren't going through them all that quickly, but I've never seen that happen at any other fast food places whether the fries were turning over or not. Breadwise, there was a choice of biscuit or tortilla - Malawry described the biscuit as "okay," but the tortillas were pretty good. There was a condiment bar with 3 types of salsa (salsa fresca, green tomatillo, and roasted tomato), as well as jalapeños. Again, none of the salsas were very hot, but all had a nice flavor to them. Desserts were prepackaged Edwards pie (which we skipped - prefab pie is prefab pie) and flan, which was reasonably good. Beverages were Coke products, plus horchata and tamarindo. I'd get the tamarindo, which was nice if a little sweet; the horchata was a little gloopy for my taste. The verdict: Once the lines die down, it'll be our go-to fast food chicken. It's also very good as leftovers - it doesn't have nearly the congeal-factor of leftover Popeye's or KFC, both of whom should be quaking in their corporate boots if Pollo Campero goes nationwide.

Well, since it's noon, we should probably just go ahead and say tomorrow. How does 2pm, meeting at the chicken place, sound to everyone? Directions to Pollo Campero: Location: 496 Elden St., Herndon From the Beltway/DC: Take the Dulles Toll Road to the exit for Fairfax County Parkway. Turn right at the end of the exit ramp, go through one traffic light, then exit to the right and follow signs for Elden St - you'll eventually turn left at the end of the ramp and go under the overpass. Stay on Elden St. through 4 sets of lights - you'll see a K-Mart on your right. Pollo Campero is just the other side of the K-Mart auto center on the right - it's probably best to park in the K-Mart parking lot. If you pass the Burger King on the right, you've gone too far. See everyone at 2pm tomorrow! Edit: just so you know what it looks like, here's a photo.

Hours are 10am-11pm. The line at 6pm didn't look too bad, and since it's supposed to be nice this weekend it shouldn't be a great hardship to stand outside for a bit. (It started raining just as I got there, and there wasn't anyone bailing out over a little water.) Parking situation is fairly dire, but we can always park at the K-Mart next door and walk over. The other problem might be seating - this location used to be an outpost of Mark Moseley's Burgers, and there wasn't a lot of seating in the previous incarnation. I didn't get a good look inside - looks like they might have made a little more space, but I can't say for sure. I'm guessing mid-afternoon either Saturday or Sunday would be good - y'all work out which you'd prefer (we're free either day) and I'll send out directions. Plus there's always the frozen custard place a few blocks away for after.

In the absence of enough information to form a concrete plan of attack, I'll swing by Pollo Campero this afternoon on the way home and check out the hours, and also see if I can get any info on when/if the crowds thin out a little. I'll pass along any and all info, and we can work from there. Mmmm. Chicken.

Won't help us this weekend - doesn't appear to be anything big going on footie-wise.

Obviously not a football fan. Ahhhh, TiVo.

Saturday or Sunday are pretty much open - the variable now is that I'm not sure what Pollo Campero's hours are, and their website doesn't say. It has incredibly perky music, though.

The one in Herndon opened last Saturday - we drove by there around 10:30, before it opened, and the line was already wrapped halfway around the building. We can swing by this weekend and check it out, or, if anyone wants to venture out to the boonies, folks can meet at our place and we can go en masse - it's about 10 minutes from our house.