October 30, 2009 Guatemalan fast-food favorite comes to New England Play video

(NECN: Peter Howe, East Providence, R.I.) - Opening-day lunch was mobbed Friday for Rhode Island's first taste of a Guatemalan legend: Pollo Campero, Spanish for "country chicken." It's the second opening in New England -- after Chelsea, Mass. -- of a fast-food restaurant chain that's beloved in Central America and slowly spreading in the U.S.

As fried chicken flew out of the broiler inside, two Providence ladies were waiting more than half an hour to get through the drive through. "All the commotion, all the people, it makes you want to go try it,'' explained one woman who didn't want her name used. Her friend, Alex, of Providence, who asked to leave out her last name, said, "We know people that go all the way to New York, to Boston to get this, just to try it.''

It was just last April that New England's first Pollo Campero opened in Chelsea, and it was quickly mobbed, with up to 20,000 patrons a day requiring police traffic details to maintain order. That provided encouragement to franchisers to open this second one on Newport Avenue at the East Providence-Pawtucket line, the site of a former Wendy's/Tim Horton's doughnut shop.

One thing it reflects is how fast the Latino population is growing in Rhode Island. That includes Puerto Ricans and Mexican immigrants, of course, but also includes many Guatemalans and other Central Americans for whom Pollo Campero is as familiar and popular as, say, Dunkin' Donuts or Friendly's for New Englanders. Latinos have

grown from 8.7 percent of Rhode Island's population in 2000 to 11.6 percent last year, according to the U.S. Census bureau.

"There's a very vibrant Central American community here" on the east side of metropolitan Providence, said Jeff Ackerman, CEO of Chair 5 Restaurants, a group that's franchising Pollo Campero locally (and also Qdoba in Kenmore Square, Downtown Crossing, and other locations in Boston). Noting Pollo Campero's founding in the 1970s, Ackerman said, "A lot of Central Americans, they know the brand, they love the brand. It's really a product and a part of the culture from home.''

So what's Pollo Campero got that, say, Kentucky Fried Chicken doesn't? Well, like the Colonel's "secret recipe," Pollo Campero offers pressure-cooked fried chicken with a proprietary Latin-influenced flavor blend, plus pork-seasoned beans and rice, French fries, and uniquely Central American items like fried plantains, fried yuca (a cousin of the sweet potato), special drinks like tamarindo and horchata, and for dessert, tres leches sponge cake and caramel flan.

Jaime Melendez, a Puerto Rican by birth who lives in Pawtucket, said after enjoying his first meal with his wife, Lillian, that he loved the Guatemalan cooking. "You couldn't ask for better,'' said Melendez, who pronounces his first name like Jamie. "Nicely spiced. It's not over-spiced.''

One other thing this means: 68 new jobs in New England's highest unemployment state (13.0 percent as of September).

"Nothing's easy right now necessarily, and it is a tough time to be opening up a restaurant chain,'' Chair 5's Ackerman said. "We believe enough in the brand, and we think long-term, it will be a success.''

With a line out the door and cars encircling the restaurant, on day one it sure looks like it is. And Chair 5 is already working on opening its third location in East Boston's Central Square next month ... uno, dos, tres Pollo Camperos for New England, and probably more to come.