Popeyes Rotherham: Hype for new fried chicken restaurant and drive-thru sees eager customers queue from 4am

This morning (May 15) saw the official opening of American fried chicken restaurant Popeyes UK at Parkgate Shopping Park, in Rotherham. The opening also marked Popeyes’ first drive-thru in the UK, which saw more than 50 cars queue for a taste of Louisiana.

As part of its opening, Popeyes offered the first few lucky customers a huge prize of free Chicken Sandwiches for a whole year, plus the first 25 vehicles within the drive-thru and the first 25 customers to enter on-foot were awarded with a free Chicken Sandwich and car-themed Popeyes merchandise.

Elizabeth and Victoria Adeosun, mother and daughter local to Rotherham, were the first through the drive-thru, and Jamie Poon was the first pedestrian through the doors of the new restaurant, each bagging themselves free Chicken Sandwiches for a year after both queuing for a whopping seven hours after turning up at 4am this morning.

Victoria said: “I have been to both the Leicester and London Popeyes restaurants, so when I heard that Popeyes was opening near home, I had to be one of the first in the queue, so I made my mum [Elizabeth] get up and come to the opening.”

Jamie said: “I found out about the competition a few months ago on Twitter and I have been keeping an eye on updates of the Rotherham opening ever since. I arrived at 4am and I can’t wait to try my first ever Popeyes Chicken Sandwich.”

Tomorrow (May 16), Popeyes will be celebrating the launch of its new breakfast menu by offering free breakfast muffins to the first 25 cars in the queue at the new drive-thru.

Breakfast will start at 8am, with food including the big breakfast roll, cajun hash browns and Nutella-topped buttermilk biscuits.

Neil Williamson, chief operating officer, said: “We’ve seen some great excitement for the Rotherham launch with fans queuing up from 4am for our Chicken Sandwich. We can’t wait to see the buzz continue to grow and for more people to try the Popeyes ‘shatter crunch’ for themselves.

"We will also be launching the breakfast menu at the Rotherham drive-thru and we’re looking forward to seeing how this is received as the breakfast offering becomes a staple at more of our restaurants across the UK.”