I've heard teh same about Popeye's in NO compared to the rest of the country, at least regarding the biscuits. Popeye's biscuits are legendarily awful to anyone that has tried one, but in NO awful biscuits are verbotten. Apparently, the original Popeye's biscuit shack (also founded by the Popeye's founder) still operates and is very popular, so they are actually prepared fresh and are real biscuits in those local Popeye's restaurants.
I've also heard that no one in NO eats their red beans and rice, because people just go somewhere else. I've never been to NO myself....and I am 100% certain that Popeye's would never be on my list to eat there in order to confirm this. I want to believe it, because there is no way that a restaurant that puts "biscuit" in its name should be proud of the crap that they sell, outside of NO, anyway.