Chicken and waffles
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Chicken and waffles is a dish, combining waffles, typically a breakfast food, with chicken, sometimes fried, that is served in certain specialty restaurants in the United States. The most famous of these restaurants is Roscoe's.
It's important to note, however, that there are two types of dishes that go by the name of chicken and waffles. The first type is one not often referred to: it consists of a plain waffle with chopped-up chicken on top, covered in gravy. The most common usage of the phrase, however, refers to the serving of fried chicken along with a waffle, the waffle then typically being covered with butter and/or syrup (as is common practice among those who eat waffles for breakfast in the United States). This unusual combination of foods is beloved by many people who are influenced by traditions of soul food passed down from past generations of their families.
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[edit] History
The exact origins of the dish are unknown. A restaurant named the Wells Supper Club in Harlem claims to be the birthplace of chicken and waffles; their official slogan is "Wells: Home of Chicken and Waffles Since 1938." Supposedly, the Wells Supper Club started selling the chicken and waffles dish to patrons of their club in 1938, which was during the Jazz Age; the dish served as a late-night snack for those patrons who wanted a meal that would serve as both dinner for that night and breakfast for the next day.
Some historians, however, believe the dish goes back even further - perhaps even as far back as the late 19th century, when Southern African-Americans, recently freed from slavery, began migrating to the Northern United States. According to author John T. Edge: "My guess is that it comes from the days when someone would go out in the morning and wring a chicken's neck and fry it for breakfast. Preparing a breakfast bread with whatever meat you have on the hoof, so to speak, comes out of the rural tradition."
From Harlem, chicken and waffles was brought across the country to Los Angeles by Herb Hudson, who founded Roscoe's House of Chicken 'n Waffles in the mid 1970s. It's believed, although unprovable, that Hudson and his friend Roscoe (whose full name is unknown) had moved to Southern California from New York to open their restaurant in Hollywood.
[edit] Popularity
The popularity of chicken and waffles has much to do with the success of Roscoe's chain of restaurants, which brought the dish more into the mainstream. What helped spread the popularity of Roscoe's was celebrity support of his restaurant - Herb Hudson knew people who worked in Motown and in television, such as Natalie Cole; later, more celebrities, such as Redd Foxx, would tell their television audience that Roscoe's was a place they should eat. In recent decades, Arsenio Hall has helped popularize Roscoe's, speaking of the restaurant in his performances.
[edit] Restaurants
Besides Roscoe's House of Chicken 'n Waffles, there are other chicken and waffles restaurants in the United States. There are some such restaurants in St. Louis, Louisville, Detroit and Oakland. Gladys Knight owns a chain of chicken and waffles restaurants with two locations in the Atlanta area and one in the Washington, D.C., suburb of Largo, Maryland, in the Boulevard at the Capital Centre.
[edit] References
- Edge, John T. (2004) Fried Chicken: An American Story. Putnam Publishing Group. ISBN 0-399-15183-4
