![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/0_FORT-LANDSCAPEjpeg.jpg\")
The Fort branch of Popeyes had a ribbon cutting ceremony(Image: Popeyes)<\/p>\nCustomer Mia set up camp outside Popeyes on the Fort Shopping Park at 7:30am the day before it openedThe Fort branch of Popeyes had a ribbon cutting ceremony(Image: Popeyes)<\/p>\n
A hopeful food fan queued for 27 hours outside a new fried chicken restaurant that opened at the Fort Shopping Park.<\/p>\n
Popeyes opened on Friday, May 23 at 11am but diner Mia set up camp at 7:30am on Thursday, May 22 to be first through the door of the new branch.<\/p>\n
The US chain, known for its Louisiana fried chicken, opened on Birmingham’s New Street in August last year, with campers waiting outside for over 14 hours.<\/p>\n
Read more: Restaurant backed by Drake, Usher and Samuel L Jackson to open in Birmingham<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n Subscribe to the Brum Food Club<\/a> for a weekly food and drink newsletter, in your inbox, every Thursday. It’s free.<\/strong><\/p>\n But at The Fort, Mia reached a new record, waiting for 27 hours for food she hadn’t before tasted.<\/p>\n Mia said: “I’ve never had Popeyes before but I\u2019ve heard so many good things – especially about the chicken sandwich.<\/p>\n “As soon as I found out it was opening, I knew I had to be first in line.<\/p>\n “It’s been a long wait, but I’m buzzing to finally try it and see what all the hype’s about!”<\/p>\n A ribbon cutting, complete with confetti cannon and merch giveaway, took place at 11am.<\/p>\n As well as opening at The Fort, Popeyes opened a second new branch – with a drive through – at the Gallagher Retail Park in Wednesday on Friday, May 23.<\/p>\n Popeyes is known for fried chicken tenders, chicken wraps and sandwiches in Louisiana seasoning.<\/p>\n The halal chicken is marinated for 12 hours, breaded and fried to its ‘shatter crunch’ texture.<\/p>\n Sides include biscuits and cajun gravy.<\/p>\n Tom Crowley, CEO of Popeyes UK, said: “The response across the West Midlands has been amazing – it’s been great to see such a strong turnout at both locations.<\/p>\n “We’re looking forward to welcoming more customers to experience a taste of New Orleans over the weekend, and are excited to open more restaurants across the West Midlands in the months ahead.”<\/p>\n A further launch is planned for Tyseley – on Monday June 2. Then, the first three customers on foot, and the first three cars in the drive through, will get free chicken sandwiches for a year.<\/p>\n The first 25 in each queue will get Popeyes merchandise and the first 50 will get a free chicken sandwich each.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Customer Mia set up camp outside Popeyes on the Fort Shopping Park at 7:30am the day before it…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":126920,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7820],"tags":[855,10314,748,393,46831,4884,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-126919","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-birmingham","8":"tag-birmingham","9":"tag-birmingham-restaurants","10":"tag-britain","11":"tag-england","12":"tag-fort-dunlop","13":"tag-great-britain","14":"tag-uk","15":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114560642976712561","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/126919","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=126919"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/126919\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/126920"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=126919"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=126919"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=126919"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}