tesg's guide to big chain road food consumption

CHAIN -- Long John Silver's
Owner -- Yum! Brands, Inc (NYSE: YUM)
Primary Operating Region -- 35 states around US
Number of Locations -- 1200 US, 33 International (December 2004)

I have a friend who claims her Weight Watchers coach approved her for Long John Silvers because "the food is so greasy it goes right through you and takes even more with it."  Yet I am forbidden to take her to lunch there by her roommate because "it just doesn't agree with her and we all suffer in the end."  Can't win.

Coming from the Pacific Northwest, I like seafood.  Living in a city with a motto like "Salmon Capital of the World", seafood was not hard to come by.  Cast off a rock and catch one.  Drop a crab pot.  I had friends who fished daily so they could trade said fish to the Japanese lumber boats for Japanese cigarettes and Coca Cola (long skinny cans, tastes like Pepsi.)  Seafood?  Not a problem.

So I move to the Midwest where the best seafood is flash-frozen and sold for anywhere from $4 to $12 a pound at Super Target.  Restaurant-wise, you're pretty much limited to Red Lobster (unless you're lucky...and if you are, it's probably ridiculously pricey).  Then there's the fast-food seafood.  In most of the US, that's limited to one name...Long John Silvers.

Long John Silvers debuted in 1969 with franchising beginning a year later.  For a long time they were owned by Jerrico, whose history includes developing Fazoli's.  They're currently owned by Yum!, the Taco Bell/KFC/Pizza Hut company, who ended up with LJS when they purchased Yorkshire Global Restaurants, largely for their other concept, A&W.  But word is Yum! wants to significantly increase the presence of LJS after taking time to realize what they had with the chain.

Long John Silvers epitomizes every fast food seafood chain that has ever come down the pike.  You have a choice of fried battered fish, or grilled fish.  In either case, it's a generic white fish, paired in combos with fries and/or cole slaw.  Don't like fish?  Have a chicken plank.  Is this as good as it gets?  Unfortunately.

LJS does have two signature items that people really go for...Hush Puppies (round bread thingies that I don't like at all) and random pieces of leftover fish/chicken batter that I have heard referred to as "scrunchies".  I DO like those.  I'd prefer they replaced the french fries with a whole bunch of those.

It's pricey, it's greasy.  I occasionally get a craving for the chicken planks, but Skipper's has better.  Unfortunately my nearest Skipper's is 1,100 miles West...my nearest LJS is about 2 miles West.  

Once in awhile you will find "Clam Chowder" available.  You know what the aftertaste reminds me of?  Hot dogs.  And I'm sure we've ALL wondered at some point or another what Hot Dog Chowder would taste like...

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