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Friday, 09/30/05 At Super Pollo, bird's the wordSome of the better years of my profligate youth were spent in Guatemala, excavating the ruins of the beach-loving peoples of the Pacific Coast. Every now and then, we would have to abandon the field and venture into the capital city to wend our way through the labyrinthine bureaucracy. It also was a good time to eat. One popular place was a cevicheria called Chepitas, a fabulous joint, cheap and without pretension. Waitresses were trained to leave the accumulated beer bottles — no small measure of your machismo — to rattle when you slapped the flimsy tin tabletop to make a point.
Sometimes, though, we tired of ceviche. If we were really feeling homesick, we would go to Pollo Campero, a fried chicken purveyor that was Guatemala-based but clearly built on the American fast-food model, right down to the dancing cartoon chicken. The biggest challenge at Pollo Campero was ordering through the drive-through speaker. It went something like this: "Yo quiero dos snak-pak, por favor." "Wmwmwmwm. Rsrsrsrsr? "Si, con Coca Cola." "Nmnmsm! Rshsrtshrrmm. Mmnn?" The voice always sounded like the teacher in the old Charlie Brown cartoons, getting angrier with each exchange but no less intelligible. After a few minutes of this, it was best to just drive up to the window, take what they gave you and move on. Remarkably, the chicken was always quite good. It's no surprise then that Pollo Campero is now feeding people throughout Central America, Mexico and the U.S. (with almost two dozen locations). And that's what makes the establishment last year of Super Pollo, a chicken restaurant on Nolensville Road, so interesting. You're met by a sign with a cartoon pollo with a big "S" on its chest that looks a bit like a crazy renegade bird who's just escaped a date with the plucker. Rather than a growing chain such as Pollo Campero coming here and staking a claim for Hispanic chicken-lovers, it's two enterprising Belmont University siblings, Jeannette and Israel Cejas, who have made a preemptive strike with Super Pollo. The biggest difference, though, is how the chicken is prepared. While Campero keeps the fryer popping, Super Pollo serves chicken that's been fire-grilled over hickory wood and then served plain or basted with either regular or spicy barbecue sauce. You also can get chicken tacos, chicken wings and chicken salad. It's the grilled chicken, though, that's worth the trip. The meat remains very moist, even the breast pieces are succulent. The sauce isn't too sweet, nor too hot. The rest of the menu favors Mexican and other Latino tastes with charro beans, tortillas and a salsa bar. There's also a selection of Mexican sodas chilling on ice at the counter. And something you won't find at KFC, another icy bin holds cold beer. Somehow, I don't seem to miss Pollo Campero anymore. Like most fast-food places, orders are taken at a counter, but at Super Pollo, you can then take your drink and sit down and wait until your food is delivered to the table, a nice customer-service treat. The food also is very affordable, especially the half-chicken combo with a side, tortillas, a small cob of corn and a fountain drink for $8.99. With larger family packs, which come with 8-16 pieces, you can keep folks full for about $3 a person. I give the place high marks for simply serving great barbecued chicken. You can pop open a beer and almost think you're in a friend's back yard. What I'm not crazy about are the salsas on the bar. Most tasted flat, like they came from a big jar, especially the bright-green tomatillo version. Everything else tasted so fresh and bursting with flavor that the salsa non-sequitur was quite disappointing. Thankfully, it's easily corrected. The Cejas siblings, though, are getting the rest of it quite right, and I expect this super bird to fly. Besides, it's healthier than Pollo Campero and a whole lot closer than Avenida La Castellana. • |
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Skip the fountain drinks and go for either a Mexican soda or a cold Mexican beer at Super Pollo, a grilled-chicken restaurant on Nolensville Road. (PHOTOS BY NINA LONG / STAFF)
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