Harland Sanders was often thinking about his next business plan. After pursuing a variety of occupations as a young man, he opened the Sanders Court and Café in Corbin, Kentucky in 1930. The governor of Kentucky bestowed the title of Colonel upon him for his popular restaurant menu.

In 1952, he began touring the country to sell his formula and equipment for efficiently-cooked, great-tasting fried chicken. His initial customers were established restaurant owners, such as Carl’s Drive-In on Brainerd Road near the Missionary Ridge tunnels.

By the late 1960’s, Kentucky Fried Chicken had its own restaurants at addresses such as 3001 Rossville Boulevard and 2121 Broad Street. It’s possible to travel about Chattanooga, and see other former KFC buildings like those two that were replaced by other sites.

Col. Sanders knew that the competition was always out there. In Chattanooga, other chains of chicken came into the market but generally, had short stays. Here’s a few of them that you may remember.

THE KRYSTAL

Growing from a single restaurant in 1932 at Seventh and Cherry streets, The Krystal had a chain of restaurants across the southeast by the late 1960’s. The company moved into new offices above its first location, and was seeking to expand.

The Chattanooga Times reported on November 17, 1968 “Krystal Ready to Launch Fried Chicken Business.” The first three stores to offer fried chicken opened in 1969, with the present Broad Street restaurant being the first to have the new menu. Plans were readied to expand to thirty cities.

Krystal embarked on a remodeling program, and concatenated chicken-only counters with their existing hamburger businesses. In their new venture, Krystal sold boxes of fried chicken, cole slaw, fries, and rolls with honey.

I recall that at about the same time, Krystal was giving away large inflatable white kangaroos with purple polka dots as part of a “Take Home a Sackful” campaign.

Krystal continued to sell fried chicken as late as 1976. Soon, the menu was revamped, with fried chicken being dropped, during a corporate-wide remodeling campaign – remember the polka dot Krystal K signs? Today, Krystal sells chicken in the form of its Krystal Chik sandwiches and Chik’n Bites.

MARYLAND FRIED CHICKEN

This restaurant chain appears to have made a very short appearance in Chattanooga. The stores are still around today, but in other cities. According to the company’s Web site, www.marylandfriedchicken.com., it all began when Delaware native Albert Constantine opened a restaurant bearing his name in 1959.

Two years later, to counter the growing popularity of KFC, Constantine put together a recipe based on twenty-one spices, and used a broaster to pressure-fry the chicken. With his signs now bearing the name Maryland Fried Chicken, Constantine pursued an aggressive plan to expand into various states.

The 1970 Chattanooga city directory lists the first and only listings for Maryland Fried Chicken. There were stores at 3901 Rossville Boulevard and 5312 Brainerd Road (between McBrien and Brooks). The next year, the Brainerd site had become a Long John Silver’s. The Rossville store was vacant until 1975, when the Flamingo Restaurant occupied it.

If you didn’t get a chance to taste Maryland Fried Chicken, don’t worry. The chain’s Web site lists several other locations, including several in Florida and Georgia.

CHURCH’S

This well-known restaurant chain has an interesting company history on their Web site at www.churchs.com. George W. Church, Sr., an incubator salesman, decided to pursue the somewhat-related business of fried chicken restaurants. The first Church’s opened in San Antonio, Texas across from The Alamo in 1962.

Church’s came to Chattanooga in 1982. Its first location opened in July, 1982 on Dodson Avenue. On August 26, 1982, the Chattanooga Times reported the opening of a second store on Martin Luther King Boulevard. Chattanooga city commissioners Jim Eberle and John P. Franklin were among those pictured at the grand opening ribbon-cutting.

The new stores in Chattanooga added to the total of 1,040 restaurants in the Church’s chain.

The Martin Luther King Boulevard building has most recently been a community outreach center for UTC. The Dodson Avenue Church’s was last listed in the 2008 city directory, but is now vacant.

MRS. WINNER’S

Though this chain is no longer represented in Chattanooga, it has many stores in nearby cities according to its Web site, www.mrs-winners.com.

Mrs. Winner’s began construction of its Rossville Boulevard store in August, 1983, according to a September 23, 1983 Chattanooga Times article. The stores in the Chattanooga area were being built by the president of Franco, Inc., a franchisee of Hardee’s in the area. Hardee’s also later offered fried chicken for a while on its menu.

Mrs. Winner’s served its menu in restaurants that resembled farm houses. They featured breakfast items such as biscuits and sausage. Their chicken platters could be enjoyed with corn on the cob, mashed potatoes, cole slaw, and strawberry shortcake. A similar restaurant chain, Sister’s, operated for a while in other cities.

KENNY ROGERS ROASTERS

I reviewed the history of this restaurant chain in a 2/22/2004 Memories article.

Though the rotisseries have almost all been shut down in the United States, Kenny Rogers Roasters still has a major presence in the Philippines, according to their Web site, http://www.kennys.com.ph/.
www.kennys.com.ph.

If you have memories of any of these former local chicken chains, please send me an e-mail at jolleyh@bellsouth.net.