Popeyes officially opens in Festival Place, Basingstoke

Popeyes officially opened its doors in Festival Place, Basingstoke, to enormous fanfare from a live brass band, as hundreds queued to taste their famous fried food.

The new branch is the 94th to open in the UK and coincides with the opening of a new branch in Stoke, Staffordshire.

Among the hundreds of hungry people who made the trip for the grand opening on Friday, September 25, were Sean and his partner, Lisa, who had never visited a Popeyes before.

Siona Roche, Julia Borowicz and Sophia Sorondo gave a big thumbs up to the chicken (Image: Newsquest)

Sean said: "If you like chicken, you're sorted in Basingstoke. I've got my order planned out, I'm after some chicken tenders and a Louisiana chicken burger and sauces"

Lisa said: "I want to try something different and spicy, those Cajun fries sound nice. It's good to try new things"

Sean added: "It's fantastic to see Festival Place buzzing again, I've been more times this year than in the last few years"

Rebecca Perkins bagged herself a year's worth of Popeyes chicken sandwiches after paying a "substantial amount" to swap places with the person at the front of the queue.

She said: "As soon as I heard Popeyes was opening in Basingstoke, I knew I had to be here early - I’m a massive fan of their chicken.

"It's just much better and flavoursome."

Enjoying their chicken inside were Luke and Rebecca, with mum Joanne Edwards who said they loved their chicken burgers.

Lydia Palmer Rios, Jack Toomey, Miguel Garcia, Dexter Headland and Tolad Jaff didn't mess about and wated no time devouring their food quickly.

Siona Roche, Julia Borowicz and Sophia Sorondo gave a big thumbs up to the chicken, with Julia saying, "It was delicious."

Lukas and Mason, both Basingstoke locals, added: “We saw the launch on Instagram and couldn’t resist coming down - everyone’s always talking about how good the chicken is, so we had to see what all the hype was about.”

CEO of Popeyes UK, Tom Crowley, was present at the opening ceremony and told the Gazette: "We've been trying to get into Festival Place for three years now. We were just waiting for the right location, and finally, we got this one at the front with the windows looking out.

"This is number 94 in the UK now, and the second one opening today - this one in Basingstoke and the other is in Stoke, which is a coincidence."

He explained what to expect from the food: "We're bringing the spirit of New Orleans, which is where Popeyes began, to Basingstoke.

"We do shakes in the UK - they don't do them in the USA - our Biscoff is a bestseller and our hot honey sauce is my favourite, the UK likes a lot more spice than America

"All our ingredients are fresh, the chicken, the pickles and we bread our chicken by hand and lift it 20 times to create the very, very unique product"

Impressed by the turnout, he said: "We don't do anything by halves, this is a big opening, we've got the brass band and a couple hundred in the queue."

"We get big queues everywhere we open, and this has been a great reception."

The launch marks the first Popeyes restaurant in Hampshire, following the success of its nearby opening in Reading last month. Fans in Basingstoke started queuing up from 5.30am to get a taste of the world-famous Popeyes Chicken Sandwich from the new restaurant.

All of Popeyes' chicken is halal and marinated for 12 hours in its signature blend of bold Louisiana seasoning, then hand-breaded and battered to deliver that world-famous ‘shatter-crunch’.