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Over the weekend, Houston restaurant Turkey Leg Hut popped up in Fort Worth, and the anticipation for these sauce-smothered, pasta-stuffed turkey legs was so great that many diners ended up waiting more than 12 hours in line.
The restaurant, which serves smoked turkey legs stuffed with extras like seafood alfredo, mac and cheese and dirty rice, hosted a three-day pop-up from a food truck outside the Potter’s House church this past weekend. Even before the pop-up opened on Friday morning, cars were already stretching about half a mile down the feeder road of Interstate 30. A representative for the restaurant estimated that more than 3,000 people were in line before doors opened at 11 a.m., according to the Dallas Observer.
Scope out footage of the lines below:
As previously reported by Eater, Turkey Leg Hut owners Lynn and Nakia Price said that they were headed to Dallas-Fort Worth with 25,000 turkey legs in tow, but that was clearly not enough.
More than a thousand comments on the restaurant’s Facebook page are filled with tales of long wait times and complaints about how the restaurant handled the situation, with some people not getting served until well after midnight. Some gave up after seven hours, while others waited upwards to 13 hours for food. The restaurant eventually ran out of turkey legs at 3 a.m. on Saturday, with people still in line. Some diners reportedly received vouchers for free turkey legs after waiting in line for hours, but it’s unclear whether or not they’ll have to make the 250-mile trek to Houston to redeem those.
By the second day of the pop-up, the restaurant had shifted from drive-up service to walk-up service only. By Sunday they were limiting orders to six turkey legs per customer. That limit was, apparently necessary, judging by a video showing one receipt that totaled more than $1,100 in turkey legs from just one order.
No word yet on if the restaurant, which also regularly draws long lines at its Houston brick-and-mortar location, will plan another pop-up for the Dallas area.
