Boston Mayor Thomas Menino is no fan of Chick-fil-A, but there isn't anything he can do to stop the controversial fast-food chain from opening a branch in the city — and he knows it.

"I can't do that," Menino told the Boston Herald today. "That would be interference to his rights to go there."

Menino said his tough talk about making it "very difficult" for Chick-fil-A to open a store across the street from City Hall was "a mistake" — a "Menino-ism" — but insisted that his distaste for Chick-fil-A president Dan Cathy's anti-gay remarks remains unchanged.

"Some people might not like these positions, but as mayor of the city of Boston, you can't run and hide, and I'll always protect people's rights," he said. "I'm right out front there and if people don't like it, I feel sorry for them. But I'm the mayor of Boston and I get elected to make my opinions known."

Meanwhile, in Chicago, the owner of the Windy City's lone Chick-fil-A franchise asked Mayor Rahm Emanuel for some face-time to clear things up.

After a local alderman expressed his intent to block a second franchise from opening in his ward, Emanuel appeared to support the effort, remarking that "Chick-fil-A values are not Chicago values."

Lauren Silich says she has gay employees in her restaurant and doesn't discriminate. "I just want people to know there's a local face to this controversy," she told the Chicago Tribune. "We're not a corporate face. We love our city."

[photo via AP]