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Help me find lunch


teriaki

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I stayed home from work today so I could get some stuff done around the apartment (yeah... that's it...), but now I need to get some lunch.

Please help me find lunch by recommending where to go for some take out or delivery.

I live near Logan Circle. So far, I've thought of Whole Foods and Ben's Chili bowl.

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Originally posted by kken

that whole foods is like five blocks away... sure yer up to the task? ;)

whew, just made it back. that was tough.

surprisingly, after all of that last night, I feel great today. I think I'll head over to the gym in a little bit. I really thought I was going to be super hung over.

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Originally posted by teriaki

I'd love a burrito. Where can I get a burrito around here?

You should have gone to the burrito cart guy on 15th and K.

Ordered a large Black and Tan with everything in it and Georgia Peach and Predator Hot Sauces... It's the hangover cure-all.

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Originally posted by pgiddy

there's some new place in arlignton/falls church, suppose to be pretty good, long lines though, from here to outh america.......

you must be talking about this place! :laugh:

I38929-2003Oct16L

Long Wait for Taste of Home

Guatemalan Fried Chicken Draws a Crowd

By Annie Gowen

Washington Post Staff Writer

Friday, October 17, 2003; Page B01

There's ordinary fried chicken, and then there's Pollo Campero fried chicken, a crispy culinary treat many Central American immigrants say is without equal. They've been bringing takeout boxes from the Guatemalan fast-food chain on flights back to the United States for years -- some 3 million pieces of chicken a year.

So when the restaurant chain, as much an icon in Central America as McDonald's is in the United States, opened its first outlet in the Washington area this month, customers came from as far away as Georgia and New York and began lining up at 2 a.m. for the 10 a.m. opening.

Customers outside the Falls Church restaurant now form lines at 8 a.m. that last through the day, as do the traffic tie-ups on Columbia Pike, much to the chagrin of neighbors. The restaurant is racking up record sales and frying up 253 birds an hour, and it must start turning people away well before closing time.

A second Pollo Campero opened in Herndon on Saturday -- also to long lines -- and two more are planned in Adams Morgan and Langley Park next year, according to Kathy Barahona, who, along with her husband, Jose, is the majority investor in the company with rights to develop Pollo Campero in the area.

"The Hispanic population is so big around here, we thought it was going to be a hit, and so it was," Barahona said. The Washington area is home to 186,000 natives of Central America and their children, according to census figures.

For immigrants now living far from El Salvador and Guatemala, Pollo Campero is worth the wait.

"This is my country!" said Erica Mercado, 26, a Rockville resident, finally sitting down to eat lunch after two hours in line in front of the Falls Church location. She waved a chicken wing for emphasis. "I love this chicken . . . the flavor is so good."

Pollo Campero, which means "country chicken" in Spanish, was founded in Guatemala in 1971 and now has 180 outlets throughout Central America and an estimated $300 million in annual revenue, according to Rodolfo Jimenez, the company's marketing director.

Pollo Campero is among a half-dozen or so Latin American restaurant chains that have opened locations in the United States since 2001 -- looking to capitalize on the rapidly growing Hispanic population, with its estimated $600 million in annual disposable income. The chains include Venezuela-based Churromania International, which sells churros (sugared fried dough).

Jimenez said Pollo Campero began planning to expand into the United States after it installed two takeout counters at airports in Guatemala and El Salvador in 1998 and realized how many pieces of Pollo Campero chicken were leaving the country. The practice became so widespread that El Salvador-based Grupo TACA airlines asked the company if it could design an odor-free box because TACA's airplane cabins reeked of fried chicken, Jimenez said.

Hoping to capitalize on this phenomenon, the chain opened restaurants in Los Angeles and Houston last year. The first outlet in Los Angeles did $1 million of business its first seven weeks, the company said. Barahona said she expects $1 million in sales after five weeks.

Barahona said the Pollo Campero chicken that makes its way past customs has garnered as much as $45 a box in neighborhoods and bodegas around Arlington. Now locals can buy it at market rate -- an eight-piece box for $9.99, a 12-piece box for $14.99 and a 16-piece box for $18.99.

Barahona said its distinct flavor is the result of a marinade that is injected into the chicken's skin at the processing plant. The meat then is shipped to restaurants, where it's dipped in a light flour breading and refrigerated before frying, she said.

Although the chicken is wildly popular with immigrants, people who live near the restaurant have not been welcoming of the addition to Northern Virginia's fast-food landscape. Residents in the formerly quiet streets off Columbia Pike said they never expected that one chicken restaurant would attract so many people -- and cause such a headache in their neighborhood.

"I was shocked when I saw the line -- it was out the door and around the building," said neighbor Sue Edwards, 61, a nurse. "You thought they were giving gold away or something over there."

Neighbors say that, since the restaurant opened, their streets have been jammed with cars and pedestrians and littered with Pollo Campero's crumpled wrappers. Edwards said her driveway has been blocked a half-dozen times by the customers and she has repeatedly called police to complain.

"It's been a nightmare. It's a mess over here," Edwards said.

Fairfax County Supervisor Penelope A. Gross (D-Mason) said that county and law enforcement officials have been working with the restaurant's managers to address neighbors' concerns.

"It's been successful beyond anybody's wildest dreams, and that has been a problem for the neighbors," Gross said. She said the county may reexamine whether the area could be zoned for residential parking by permit only.

Barahona said the restaurant has provided additional trash cans and sent employees to sweep the area twice daily in response to the residents' concerns about litter. She said she believes that once the excitement over the grand opening has died down and the other restaurants open, the crowds will thin to manageable levels.

"What's bringing people here now is nostalgia," Barahona said. "They remember the chicken from back home. That's why they wait. They're in love with this chicken."

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Originally posted by vicman

sooooo . . . . . . . . how you doin'? pimp.gif

lol, i'm good! my dad just came into my room with a candle in a small cake, and was like HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!! I was like ummm thanks dad, but my birthday's tomorrow... he was like isn't tomorrow the 31st, i was like nope it's the 30th, and he was like today's wednesday? then he leaves to go look at a calendar, and said, oh well, we'll do that tomorrow, but gave me a piece of cake.. :tongue:

how you been?

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yup thats it. I need to try this place and find out how good it really is. I sure as hell am not waiting in line at 8am for some fried chicken though. The INS should set up shop in front of this place and check ID's first.....IMO.....help shorten the line......

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