A Kennedy Fried Chicken in Brooklyn, New York City |
|
| Type | Private |
|---|---|
| Industry | Fast food |
| Founded | 1975 (New York City) |
| Founder(s) | Taeb Zia[1] and Abdul Karim[2] |
| Headquarters | New York City |
| Products | Fried chicken and related Southern American foods |
Kennedy Fried Chicken, also known as Crown Fried Chicken, is a common restaurant name primarily in the New York-New Jersey area, but many other similar establishments are found in nearby smaller cities or towns along the Northeastern United States. Although Kennedy Fried Chicken is a small and unorganized company, it is playing rivalry with Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC) in the inner city neighborhoods of several states along the East Coast of the United States. A number of them also exist in the West Coast of the United States, primarily in the state of California.
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Kennedy Fried Chicken was founded in 1975 with its first restaurant on Nostrand Avenue in the Flatbush section of Brooklyn. There is a dispute among the people involved in the business over who is the actual founder. Some claim that it is Abdul Karim while others say Taeb Zia was the early founder. Zia, an Afghan immigrant originally from Kabul, Afghanistan, is known by some as Zia Chicken and is regarded as the father of Kennedy Fried Chicken.[3] He immigrated to the United States in 1972 and began working at a fast food restaurant by the name of Kansas Fried Chicken, which was owned by Afro-Americans at the time. Prior to that he was studying engineering in Baku, Azerbaijan.[1] After spending about three years learning how to run a fast food business, he decided to open his own fried chicken restaurant.
"Then I saw I could do chicken just as well and 15 to 20 percent cheaper with my own recipe and spices."[1]—Taeb Zia
Kennedy Fried Chicken was named after U.S. President John F. Kennedy, "because Afghans are fond of the former president."[3][1] During the 1980s and 90s, many of the same restaurants have opened across New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Maryland and several other states. Some of them even opened in the West Coast, in California. 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, beef patties on coco bread, all sorts of sandwiches and heroes, fries, corn on the cob, mashed potatoes, onion rings, sweet potato pies and a variety flavors of ice cream for dessert.[4]
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").[4] 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 mostly by Afghan Americans but are not formally connected, although their menus and prices are similar.[2] 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.
Due to the tendency of these restaurants to appear in inner-city locations, Kennedy Fried Chicken is often referred to as "ghetto chicken" by its customers in a humorous or derogatory manner.
The Kennedy Chicken 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 believed to be affiliated with Kennedy Fried Chicken or to have previously used the Kennedy name:
In 2008, a Crown Fried Chicken in Harlem, New York changed its name to "Obama Fried Chicken" in honor of the election of President Barack Obama. However, the restaurant was closed in October of 2010 due to health code violations. [1]
In August 2011, authorities in downtrodden Binghamton, N.Y., moved to shutter the local Kennedy Fried Chicken eatery, on the grounds that it's a haven for "criminal activity and neighborhood disturbances." The chicken joint is popular both with locals and Binghamton University students jonesing for a late-night snack. But it's also apparently popular with troublemakers, authorities allege, including for fights and open-container violations. The restaurant, which serves low-priced fried chicken and assorted fast food from behind possibly bullet-proof glass, is open until 4 a.m. (http://www.pressconnects.com/article/20110815/NEWS01/108150349/Kennedy-Fried-Chicken-faces-city-lockdown?odyssey=nav|head)
In 2005 Abdul Haye, an Afghan immigrant since 1989 and a resident of Whitestone, Queens in New York City, received a trademark for his unwritten recipe for Kennedy Fried Chicken. He has been attempting to enforce the trademark against other restaurants with mixed results.[3]
"I'm declaring war against all the Afghans in New York who have stolen my name and my idea... Their poor-quality chicken is going to kill my reputation... I am the only real Kennedy!"[3]—Abdul Haye, February 2011