Craving chicken and waffles? There's a food holiday for that, at least according to Metro Diner.
The popular Jacksonville-based restaurant chain has declared Aug. 8 to be National Fried Chicken & Waffle Day. Yes, Fried Chicken & Waffle Day, not Waffles. Perhaps because San Francisco haunt Soul Groove founded the first National Fried Chicken and Waffles Day back in 2015, and that singular Waffle — oh, and the & — are enough to set Metro Diner's "inaugural" holiday apart from the rest.
Anyhow, Fried Chicken & Waffle Day encourages Metro Diner guests to order its signature take on the beloved dish, which is regularly priced at $15.99 (holy shit), for $9.99. The chain's fried chicken and waffle combines a half order of chicken with a Belgian waffle topped with strawberry butter, plus whatever the sweet and spicy sauce is.
Metro Diner spends 48 hours preparing chicken for this dish, FYI; First, the bird is brined over 24 hours, then marinated for another day to achieve ultimate juiciness and flavor. And patrons seem to dig it, considering more than 250,000 orders of the fried chicken and waffle were sold within the first half of 2018.
Metro Diner expects to sell half a million plates of the stuff by the end of the year — equivalent to 1,200-plus orders per day.
"We are giving fried chicken and waffles their very own day to honor just how special, delicious and popular the dish is across the country and to celebrate with our favorite people, our guests," said Crafton Bryant, director of marketing, in a statement. "Since debuting our Fried Chicken & Waffle in 2010, the sweet, savory and spicy dish has become an award-winning menu item and all-around crowd pleaser."
Founded in 1992, Metro Diner operates locally in St. Petersburg and South Tampa. The chain — which also operates in Alabama, Delaware, Georgia, Indiana, Kentucky, Nevada, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania and Virginia (phew!) — plans to have more than 75 outposts under its belt later this year when it opens additional locations in New Jersey, South Carolina and Tennessee.
