Chicken joint 'mobbed'
SUMMIT | Police called in to handle crowd at new El Pollo Loco
This restaurant might really be loco.
Police were called Monday after crowds swamped a south suburban outpost of West Coast chicken chain El Pollo Loco (Spanish for "the crazy chicken").
"It was mobbed," said William Mundy, a Summit building official who swung by to assess the village's new restaurant, 5436 S. Harlem Ave., and pick up lunch for his wife. "Nobody could believe it."
Mundy said lines were long and drive-through traffic snaked out onto busy Harlem Avenue soon after the local outpost of the chain, which once counted Brad Pitt among its employees, opened its doors.
Police were pressed into traffic control, he said, adding there was no serious threat to public safety.
"Never was anybody in jeopardy except for some issues with short patience," he said.
Jose Alvarez, the store manager, said chicken sales were so brisk he was forced to cancel a $4.99 six-piece chicken promotion midway through the store's first day.
"We were going to run out of chicken, and that would be really bad if we ran out of chicken," he said, later adding "everything we do here is chicken."