Harold's

I was reading this week's "Die Zeit" magazine (a mag for a large newspaper in Germany) and came across an article profiling Hyde Park and it's troubled segregated past. Quite interesting to read- just as Americans find it easier to look nakedly at WWII, Germans analyze more openly our racial injustices in the past. But this quote, closing out the essay, just absolutely made my day:
"Und in Hyde Park ist eine Mischlingskultur enstanden, in der die mächtigen gotischen Bauen der Universität mit Harold's Chicken Shack koexistieren müssen, einem verrückten, äußerst beliebten Schnellimbiss, der seinen Ursprung in den schwarzen Ghettos der fünfziger Jahren hat. Bilder in den Fenstern zeigen einen axtschwingenden Koch, der ein riesiges Huhn jagt. Bestellungen werden hinter kugelsicherem Glas entgegengenommen. Die Kunden lieben Harold's Chicken Shack auf dieselbe Art, mit der sie Erinerrungen an Al Capone lieben."

That last sentence- "the customers love Harold's in the same way that they love the memory of Al Capone"- makes absolutely no sense to me. And, I believe, couldn't be further from the truth. I think they (including me) love it because, for $3.50, you can consume about 2500 calories of white meat.