Popeyes Finds Bigger Fish to Fry—Literally—With Newest Menu Addition

It seems like another era now, but it was only a year and a half ago that Popeyes made national news with its public feud against Chick-fil-A over which had the better chicken sandwich. The merits of thick pickle slices and crispy batter aside, this war quickly took on socio-political implications. Critics pointing out that Chick-fil-A, owned by the ultra conservative Cathy family, had a long track record of donating to Christian groups with an anti-LGBTQ track record. The resulting surge of support for Popeyes saw its chicken sandwiches sell out, with a few offered on eBay for thousands of dollars. And now, Popeyes is back with what it hopes will be another blockbuster sandwich. This time, it’s not taking on Chick-fil-A because, well, it can’t: Chick-fil-A does chicken, and Popeyes is now doing fish. “Following the success of the Popeyes chicken sandwich and the famous chicken wars it ignited,” the company announced last week in a statement, “the beloved Cajun brand is once again raising the bar on sandwich standards with its new mouthwatering launch: the Cajun flounder sandwich.” Play it again, Pop The 3,100-unit chain is following its past recipe for success quite literally. The $4.49 flounder will sit atop the same toasted brioche bun as the chicken did and include the same “barrel cured” pickles. North America CMO Bruno Cardinali also pointed out that Popeyes has a long history with seafood items, and that its new item was "a natural evolution of our menu, bringing our sandwich expertise to another familiar category." It sounds tasty enough, but how likely is any fast-food chain to have a hit with a fish sandwich? It’s not like there are teeming hordes of fish fans out there—at least not the kind who go to fast-food joints. According to the National Institutes of Health, while meat consumption (beef and chicken) has risen steadily over the last century, fish consumption has remained “low and stable.” Here’s How Popeyes’ CMO Stays Inspired in an Ever-Evolving Industry Even so, Popeyes is confident that it can ride the popularity wave it caught in 2019 with this new offering. Restaurant authority Charlie Hopper, principal at Indianapolis agency Young & Laramore, thinks the company actually has a good shot—not so much because of fish, but because they’re Popeyes. “I think Popeyes, for its fans, has entered a ‘do no wrong’ area of great freedom,” Hopper said. “They have fans old and new—as of that chicken sandwich—who are eager to see what they’re up to. There’s a built-in ‘I would love a reason to check them out,’ pent-up curiosity that this [new fish sandwich] is well-situated to take advantage of.” Nonetheless, Popeyes betting on a fish sandwich is still a gamble, given the role that fish sandwiches have traditionally played in fast-food as a make-good. Some fishy history The first major burger chain to try the fish sandwich was McDonald’s, whose Filet-O-Fish hit the menu back in 1962. The fish offering was the invention of a desperate man named Lou Groen. A Cincinnati franchisee, Groen had watched his business fall off the table at the start of Lent, the 40-day period between Ash Wednesday and Easter when Catholics abstain from eating meat on Fridays. Now 59 years old, McDonald's Filet-O-Fish gave all fast-food chains a Lenten idea. Groen figured if he could give his predominantly Catholic customer base a reason to come to his place and not head to Frisch’s, his competitor, he’d be OK. Frisch’s offered a fish sandwich, so Groen decided he had to have one, too. After deep frying a battered piece of haddock and adding his own tartar sauce, Groen took his sandwich to McDonald’s founder Ray Kroc who, after seeing that Groen could sell 350 on a single Friday, gave his blessing. “My fish sandwich was the first addition ever to McDonald's original menu," Groen told the Cincinnati Enquirer in 2007. “It saved my franchise.” Pulling in the nets The Filet-O-Fish also set a precedent. When other chains saw how well McDonald’s fish sandwich—“The fish that catches people”—performed, they added their own catches. Burger King added the Whaler, known today as the Big Fish sandwich, in 1975, and it’s now a permanent fixture on the menu. This is not so for the many other chains that have followed suit, including Wendy’s (premium cod fillet sandwich), Arby’s (crispy fish), Dairy Queen (wild Alaska fish sandwich) and White Castle (seafood crab cake sliders.) For these and other outfits, the fish sandwich is the obligatory item hastily added to the grill line for Lent that makes a quiet disappearance after Easter. This includes Chick-fil-A, which also does feature a fish sandwich in select locations at this time of year. After a hiatus for 2020, White Castle's seafood crab cake slider is back. “Every year when I watch TV, I roll my eyes at the fish ads,” Hopper said. “Every Lent, brands stumble on fish—it’s almost always out of character, almost always a challenge to find a branded way to talk about it, and pretty much universally feels like this afterthought they’re required to tack onto their main campaign.” For its part, though, Popeyes seems committed to its flounder, even though there’s no word on its being a permanent menu addition. In a statement, Popeyes Americas president Sami Siddiqui said, “After seeing the response to our chicken sandwich in 2019, we are excited to deliver yet another delicious sandwich … that is sure to reset industry standards.”