A Fast Food Loyalty Rooted in Southern Identity
“Food has always been a complex issue in the South, where the country’s most distinct culinary region often eats its supper against a backdrop of race and religion,” writes Kim Severson for The New York Times. Severson notes that for Southerners, the choice to eat at Chick-fil-A is more complex than whether patrons back the decision of the franchise’s president, Dan Cathy, to publicly denounce same-sex marriage. “People here are both proud and fiercely protective of homegrown brands whose reach, like that of the 1,600-store Chick-fil-A chain, has stretched past Southern borders,” writes Severson.