tesg's guide to big chain road food consumption

CHAIN -- Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC)
Owner -- Yum! Brands, Inc (NYSE: YUM)
Primary Operating Region -- Nationwide
Number of Locations -- 5,450 US, 7,676 Internationally (December 2004)

My all-time favorite KFC would be my original hometown "Kentucky Fries” on Canyon Rd in Beaverton, OR.  It was in the shape of a barn.

That KFC is long gone (although the last time I looked, the building still stood with a revolving door of businesses in and out of it), but KFC is very much alive as one of the Tricon chains along with Pizza Hut and Taco Bell.  Tricon is a company formed out of a spinoff of PepsiCo’s restaurant division, which had included KFC, Taco Bell, and Pizza Hut.

Today, KFC appears to expand more through hybrid locations, or as Tricon calls them, “2-in-1’s”.  Notice the new KFC/Taco Bell restaurants popping up?  You also see KFC/Pizza Hut, KFC/Long John Silvers, and KFC/A&W combo's.

Harlan Sanders held many jobs through his life, and didn't even get into the restaurant business until he was forty, when he started cooking for hungry travelers who stopped at his gas station in Corbin, Kentucky, where people were served at the dining room table in the living quarters.  Demand got high, and he moved to the motel/restaurant across the street.  His pressure-cooker chicken and its eleven herbs and spices were a success.  His restaurant became well known for its cuisine.  Kentucky Governor Ruby Laffoon made him a Kentucky Colonel in 1935 in recognition of his contributions to the state's cuisine.  He auctioned the whole thing off when the interstate bypassed Corbin and, after paying his bills, had little to show for it.

In 1952, living on Social Security, Sanders called on an acquaintance he'd met at a convention, Leon "Pete" Harman.  Harman and his wife had a cafe at 3900 South and State Street In Salt Lake City.  Sanders purchased his eleven herbs and spices at a grocery store, borrowed a pressure cooker, and made his chicken for Harman.  Harman was hooked.  The name "Kentucky Fried Chicken", apparently Harman's idea, was painted on the window.  They originally sold the meal (fourteen pieces of chicken, mashed potatoes, gravy, and rolls) in a box for $3.50 until Harman came up with the legendary bucket.  Harman also provided expertise to franchisees that followed, which Sanders recruited through more demonstrations and handshake deals for a nickel per chicken sold.  The formula was born.

Sanders sold out for two million in 1964 with 600 restaurants serving the chicken, but stayed with the company traveling as its spokesman until 1980, at age 90, when he was fatally stricken with cancer. Today's KFC is one of the Yum! brands, along with Taco Bell, A&W, Long John Silver's, and Pizza Hut.

Feeling touristy?  There's lots of places to experience Kentucky Fried Chicken history...

Sander's Court in Corbin is long since gone, but a franchisee runs a modern KFC and museum out of the "restored" cafe, complete with drive-thru.  The dining area is the cafe/museum, with a replica of a motel room, the Colonel's office and restaurant kitchen, and displays with articles, artifacts, models, and other things.

There's supposedly a KFC museum at the Yum! headquarters in Louisville, but I could find no mention of it on the building and the visitor's parking lot was full when I was down there.  The Colonel is buried at nearby Cave Hill Cemetery.

Then there's "Claudia Sanders Dinner House" in Shelbyville, KY, a family-style restaurant operated by the Colonel and wife Claudia around 1968-1973 that doubled as company headquarters.  The current owners rebuilt after a 1999 fire.

The original Harman's KFC in Salt Lake City was demolished in 2004 and replaced by an all-new KFC that also acts as a museum of sorts to the Sanders/Harman legacy, with an emphasis on Harman.  The Harman Management Company still operates over 300 KFC's today.  

The bucket that once cost $3.50 can run you upwards of $30 anymore depending on the number of pieces you get. KFC also serves individual meals at very reasonable prices in comparison to other fast food outlets.  You'll be very hard pressed to find a fast food meal that looks and tastes as "homemade" as this one does, and that chicken is still very much "finger-lickin' good". The Colonel's original recipe far outshines the chicken nuggets, tenders, strips, or sandwiches at any of the other chains.  But my real favorite way to do KFC is at a KFC-Taco Bell combo restaurant, where I can order the two pieces of chicken and side it up with a Nachos Supreme.

KFC has been working hard to come up with more "car-friendly" chicken to keep up with the drive-thru crowd...wraps, sandwiches, and "popcorn chicken" are some items that come and go periodically. Most of the newer items aren't as good as the competitors by my taste.  Sonic's Popcorn Chicken is FAR better.  Hardee's/Carl's Jr's chicken strips are better than KFC's too.

WHY the name became "KFC" instead of "Kentucky Fried Chicken" is often debated.  There was an apparent urban legend about a lawsuit by the Commonwealth of Kentucky over the use of "Kentucky" (bunk), but it was probably just marketing.  For awhile, "KFC" was referred to as "Kitchen-Fresh Chicken" in KFC ads.  Seriously.  Supposedly, "Kentucky Fried Chicken" is coming back.  What they should really do is digitally insert the Colonel into new ads.  There seems to be lots of useful footage out there.  Make the ads simple, home-spun, maybe even touching in a way.

Does it matter anyway?  Do they really NEED a name at all?  Not as long as the Colonel is on the bucket.

Click here to return to tesg's guide to big chain road food consumption