Kennedy Fried Chicken
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| Type | Private |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1979 (New York City) |
| Founder(s) | Taeb Zia and Abdul Karim[1] |
| Headquarters | New York City |
| Industry | Fast food |
| Products | Chicken and related Southern foods |
Kennedy Fried Chicken, also known as Crown Fried Chicken, is a common restaurant name in the New York-Newark, New Jersey area, although other restaurants exist in nearby smaller cities or towns along the Northeastern United States.
[edit] History
Kennedy Fried Chicken was founded in 1979 in New York City, near John F. Kennedy High School in the Bronx. Presumably that is where the name comes from. The original Kennedy Fried Chicken was closed down in 2004 to make room for the new renovation of the Spuyten Duyvil Area. During the 1980s and 90s many of the same restaurants have opened across New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Maryland and several other states. Their total number is roughly estimated to be approximately 1,000. For the most part the restaurants share the same concept, if not the same menus. In addition to fried chicken, they also offer fried fish, hot wings, short ribs, shrimp, burgers, pizza, all sorts of sandwiches and heros, fries, corn on the cob, mashed potatoes, onion rings, sweet potato pies and a variety flavors of ice cream for dessert.[2]
Food at many of the inner-city restaurants is served from behind bulletproof glass. Its specialties are the deep-fried chicken (described as "not too dry or too soggy").[2] Given its inner-city roots, chicken and food is quite often ordered a la carte. The menu provided with takeout and delivery orders does not include all the restaurant's offerings, which are usually posted on its walls with accompanying large color photographs of the actual items.
The restaurants are traditionally owned and operated by Afghan Americans but are not formally connected, although their menus and prices are similar [1]. This lack of centralized control has posed huge problems for KFC (Kentucky Fried Chicken) in New York. Since the 1990s, Kentucky Fried Chicken has tried to enforce trademark rules against the restaurants, which often use the "KFC" abbreviation and have been known to decorate their restaurants in red and white colors, similar to that of Kentucky Fried Chicken.
The Kennedy restaurants have worked their way into New York restaurant lore in much the same manner as Ray's Pizza, which is also a collection of restaurants under the same name but not the same control. The cat-and-mouse game with KFC has resulted in some restaurants changing their names or using blue color instead of red. The following is a partial list of restaurants affiliated with Kennedy Fried Chicken:
- Crown Fried Chicken
- New York Fried Chicken
- Lincoln Fried Chicken
- Kansas Fried Chicken
- JFK Fried Chicken
- Palace Fried Chicken
- Texas Fried Chicken
- Florida Fried Chicken
- Georgia Fried Chicken
[edit] References
- ^ a b Steven Kurutz. Chicken Little, The New York Times, August 15, 2004.
- ^ a b Restaurant Review: A Fast Food King With Many Choices, Southeast Queens Press, undated
[edit] External links
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Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Kennedy Fried Chicken |
