The Tuesday before Thanksgiving was an interesting day. It was the day that the new “Try Boone You’ll Stay” sign was put in place. This was a project that was several years in the making and it was made to replicate a sign that used to hang in Boone near the two railroad depots that people would go through when they came to Boone.
I think it is pretty sweet and is a unique new feature to Boone. An arch you travel through when you travel to the downtown business district. I didn’t take the day off to watch it be built because my PTO was still recovering from my trip to Ireland and days I took off for the Iowa State Fair and for the Pufferbilly Days Photo Contest.
I did go down to check out the progress on my lunch break and then went down again when I got off work. After the last touches were put on it (except for the lighting that would come later) I headed to Ames to go see the second WICKED movie and get supper at the new chicken fingers place that had opened recently in Ames.
Here are some cell phone pictures of the day.
The new sign.
With my cousin Susie. Her family was involved in the construction of the sign and in putting it up. Her husband and both her sons.
It was a cold miserable day. When I came back the crowd of a hundred or so had dwindled down to… just me.
At some point I’ll have to share the real camera images from the sign going up. But you know how deep that backlog is…
I love me a good chicken tender or finger or whatever…
Crinkle cut fries! The king of fry cuts! But man…. they go way too hard on the salt on these. Way too hard.
You have your choice between a regular tender or a spicy tender. I like to get both, cause it is like Finger Roulette!
You have your choice of 7 sauces. I got The Coop and Hot Honey. But there are also all the usual suspects available.
I am finding I might not be the most discriminate chicken eater. Or other people just don’t like chicken that much.
Cause I’m finding there are a lot of people out there that don’t like Raising Cane’s or Slim Chickens.
Which I find both delicious!
So what is The Verdict?
I would go back. In fact I already have. A couple of different times. And I will go back again. It is really the only fast food option for chicken tenders in town. Well Freddy’s next door also has some excellent chicken tenders. That aside, it will make its way into the rotation I’m sure. The only other thing on their menu is grilled cheese, so you better like chicken if you are going.
To get your own chicken tenders, The Coop Chicken Fingers is located at 2420 Lincoln Way #103. It is in Campustown, so parking is awful.
Next Sunday’s food adventure will involve a food truck.
We are pretty specific with our chicken. Popeyes is the best, but their fries are trash. Cane’s is next but a long way down – however, they have crinkle cut fries that are awesome. i personally have not cared for Slim Chickens much, but have only given it a couple of tries so I can’t give it a solid thumbs down.
However – The Coop. Kingland is literally right next-door, we own the building so all of us get a 10% discount and can park in our parking garage at anytime. I used to get Freddy’s tenders pretty religiously if I got fast food at work, but if I leave the building now, it is usually for Coop.
I HAVE gotten their grilled cheese, but they use garlic butter instead of regular butter, which is not something I personally enjoy. So you are correct – back to the chicken. I have not gotten their ice cream but heard it is great.
Strangely, I used to really like Popeyes, but the last couple of times I have went it hasn’t been good. So it has been years since I’ve been to Popeyes. I have only been to Slim Chickens twice as well, so maybe I hit the 2 times they were on their game.
The main complaint I hear about Cane’s is that they don’t have very many sauce options. Although it has actually been over a year since I’ve been to one of those.
I wrote that they oversalt the fries. But in retrospect I might be thinking of the toast. There is something on the plate which comes on way to strong and now I think about it, it is probably the garlic butter on the toast.