Politicized Fast Food Joints

Published by

Clarissa

May 5, 2014

From a set of national chains, liberals most favored (in relative terms) California Pizza Kitchen.

Conservatives favored Cracker Barrel and Papa Murphy’s and Marie Callender’s and Hooter’s.

For fast food outlets there is a big liberal margin in favor of Chipotle, Boston Chicken, Qdoba, and most of all Au Bon Pain.

The only place among all these that I’ve actually been to is Au Bon Pain. And I’ve been there a lot. So the study does make sense in my case.

Does your favorite fast food place reflect your politics?

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22 responses to “Politicized Fast Food Joints”

anon

May 5, 2014

Not exactly related, but I wanted to hear your opinion on “Soylent” the food substitute: http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2014/05/12/140512fa_fact_widdicombe?currentPage=all

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1. Clarissa
  
  May 5, 2014
  
  Very funny! But obviously doomed as anything other than cute novelty item.
  
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2. Stille (@aperfectbalance)
  
  May 6, 2014
  
  Apparently this is higher-quality liquid food than most liquid food on the market right now, so I can imagine it finding quite a bit of use with people with gastric tubes or mouth injuries that mean they can’t eat for a while.
  
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ladyleahjane

May 5, 2014

Nando’s is my favourite, I didn’t see it on there, but the location placement in Victoria is genius; it’s right next to a vegan raw foods bakery/cafe, so if you’re like me and are a leftie who despises rabbit food, that’s the place to go to chow down after you meet at the preferred eatery of your taste-and-flavour-and-fat loathing compatriots.

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1. Stringer Bell
  
  May 5, 2014
  
  You’ve been snarking on vegans and vegetarians for years now with the kind of zeal that would put benghazi-truthers to shame. I like your writing a lot, and can only say that you’re better than this.
  
  Chipotle is the only fast food place I used to frequent before I learned to recreate their stuff at home, so, yeah, they’ve pegged me down correctly.
  
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  1. ladyleahjane
    
    May 5, 2014
    
    If you don’t like it, you can take my place at left-wing gatherings in Victoria where they serve air-popped popcorn with nutritional yeast sprinkled on top as the only snack item and take notes for me while I sneak off to Nando’s. 🙂
    
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2. Evelina Anville
  
  May 6, 2014
  
  Oh man. I’ve tried nutritional yeast as a seasoning and it’s NOT good. I really can appreciate healthy/vegetarian cuisine but there are times when it’s truly gross. And nutritional yeast is one of those times. 🙂
  
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  1. Clarissa
    
    May 6, 2014
    
    I don’t even know what nutritional yeast is. Is it the same yeast people put in dough to make it rise? But how can anybody eat it raw??
    
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  2. Evelina Anville
    
    May 6, 2014
    
    Here are some links: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nutritional_yeast
    http://blog.fatfreevegan.com/2011/10/what-the-heck-is-nutritional-yeast.html
    
    Maybe I need to give it a try again. But my memory of it is not good. 🙂
    
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  3. Good Enough Professor
    
    May 6, 2014
    
    Nutritional yeast is different from baker’s yeast–it won’t make anything rise. The only people I know who like it are vegans whose taste buds have been warped by years of eating ersatz foods like soy cheese.
    
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  4. Adrian
    
    May 6, 2014
    
    There is such a thing as TASTY vegetarian/vegan food, why aren’t these people eating some of that? Curry powder is vegan, just sayin’.
    
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Stringer Bell

May 5, 2014

You can divide Cracker Barrel/Marie Callender and Chipotle/Au Bon Pain along non-ideological lines, too. Obviously good food vs bad food is a clear divide. Blue collar vs upscale clientele is another.

Chipotle does make a big deal about the environment and sustainability, which definitely strikes all the right chords among lefties.

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1. Clarissa
  
  May 5, 2014
  
  I keep hearing that i need to try Chipotle because it’s so great but i see on the website that all they have is tacos and burritos, and that’s just not food to me.
  
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Stringer Bell

May 5, 2014

“If you don’t like it, you can take my place at left-wing gatherings in Victoria where they serve air-popped popcorn with nutritional yeast sprinkled on top as the only snack item and take notes for me while I sneak off to Nando’s”

Hippie-punching is the one sport that brings people of all ideological backgrounds together.

BACON, FUCK YEAH!

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1. Clarissa
  
  May 5, 2014
  
  How come I’m never invited to such gatherings? 🙂 Imagine the great posts I would write.
  
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  1. ladyleahjane
    
    May 5, 2014
    
    If you ever visit me in Victoria, you are invited to come with me and write a post about it! You could probably get an entire month’s worth of material out of my coworkers, and once my contract is out in June, I’ll tell you a little bit about the experience on my own blog.
    
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J. Otto Pohl

May 6, 2014

CPK has good pasta, for pies Marie Callender’s is very hard to beat, Chipolte is good for burritos. Neither CPK or Marie Callender’s are actually fast food places. They are just chains.

For real fast food the best places are In and Out for Burgers, Nathans for hot dogs, and El Pollo Loco for Chicken/Mexican.

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David Bellamy

May 6, 2014

I very much like Cracker Barrel and Chipotle. The others, if I have even heard of them, do not interest me at all.

I am on almost all issues left of liberal.

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Evelina Anville

May 6, 2014

I wonder if APB’s popularity with liberals has to do with the fact that they are frequently on college campuses? I used to love California Pizza Kitchen when I was about 19. It felt very sophisticated to me. And I think conservatives will avoid anything with the word “California” in it. So that makes sense to me. But I am mystified by the popularity of Chipotle. I actually love tacos and burritos and just don’t think Chipotle does them well.

I don’t go to too many restaurant/ fast food chains come to think about it. I suppose the chain I most frequent is Starbucks (embarrassingly!) and according to the link, that skews liberal. So I guess my chain loyalties do link up with my political affiliation. 🙂

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Good Enough Professor

May 6, 2014

If Cracker Barrels were built near bike paths rather than highway off-ramps, the left-wing hipsters would have discovered them years ago. It’s easier to get a tasty vegetarian whole-food meal there than at any of the other chains if you choose judiciously from the side-dish offerings.

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Stringer Bell

May 6, 2014

“There is such a thing as TASTY vegetarian/vegan food, why aren’t these people eating some of that?”

The only people who claim that vegetarian food isn’t tasty is people who don’t know how to cook food.

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1. Clarissa
  
  May 6, 2014
  
  I’m the greatest carnivore in the world but the vegetarian dishes I make are sensational. It’s all in the cooking + good, fresh ingredients.
  
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