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Feb 3, 2024 · Before Ezell’s Famous Chicken gained the fame of its name — becoming the golden-fried favorite of the Pacific Northwest, now 17 locations strong and celebrating 40 years — they were barely ...
Jun 28, 2021 · With Ezell’s on the brink of its 18th location, coming to West Seattle later this year, plus Heaven Sent locations in Lake City and Everett, the story of Seattle’s chicken wars should end on a ...
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Apr 15, 2024 · The irresistible aroma of fried chicken fills the air at every Ezell's Famous Chicken, with 16 locations in Washington and one in Oregon. The beloved fast-casual fried chicken restaurant celebrates a momentous 40 years in February 2024. The Rudd and Stephens families, who founded Ezell's, continue to play an active role in the day-to-day ...
- Big Dreams at Brown’s Fried Chicken
- Failure to Launch
- Early Attempts at Expansion
- Enter Oprah
- Fire and Frustration
- Ezell’s Without Ezell
- Overcoming The Legacy of Discrimination
Even the original idea for what became Ezell’s stemmed from discrimination: as teenagers, Stephens and Rudd worked together at Brown’s in Marshall – where the population was mostly Black, but the business owners all white. With a KFC to the east and a Church’s to the west, everyone passing through still made sure to stop in between at Brown’s for t...
Faye and Stephens scraped together $4,500 for a down payment to buy the building at the corner of 23rd and Jefferson in 1979. They had the knowledge, the experience, and the space to start frying. What they didn’t have – and couldn’t get for five more years – was the financing to remodel the kitchen and buy equipment. While the space sat boarded up...
Within a few blocks sat the same fast-food chains Brown’s battled in Texas, Church’s and KFC. The assistant manager of a nearby Church’s got off the bus in front of Ezell’s and stopped by as they mended a fence before opening to let them know they’d only be there a short time, because the school kids would keep them open for a little while, he expl...
Their accountants and lawyers recommended they throw in the towel. “But we were determined not to stay back,” says Rudd, and soon their “Angel of hope,” arrived. In 1989, Oprah Winfrey came to town to film a children’s program and a production assistant suggested Ezell’s for dinner. She stayed in the car in the parking lot while he ran in to grab t...
In the summer of 1999, just after they opened a store in Lynnwood, the dream went up in flames, literally, when an electric fire charred the original location. It took time to get the building back into code, and the delay brought to a head another relic of the red-lining in the neighborhood. “We were operating on what was called a conditional perm...
Rudd and Faye still run Ezell’s without the namesake. It’s still a family operation, with his wife doing the catering, his brother Wayne running the original location, a daughter and niece running the food truck, and extended family peppered throughout the 350 employees. They also brought on a co-owner and president, Dennis Waldron, who previously ...
“A lot of the business owners that were mentors for me when I started out, that were displaced because of the gentrification,” says Rudd. They couldn’t get the financing to keep their business going, or to pay the rapidly rising property taxes on their homes. It’s personal to him when he sees the long lines outside neon-signed cannabis shops in the...
Apr 24, 2019 · Ezell’s Famous Chicken: 12 Seattle-area branches, one slated to open in June, and one already in Spokane, ezellschicken.com. The story of Ezell’s Famous Chicken involves family and struggle ...
Jan 31, 2024 · Family-owned Pacific Northwest staple Ezell's Famous Chicken turns 40 this weekend. Founded in Seattle's Central District on Feb. 3, 1984, the beloved fried chicken spot now has 17 locations, with 16 in Washington and one in Oregon. The restaurant first opened its doors after waiting six years for funding.
Aug 5, 2012 · Johanna Somers: 206-464-3714 or jsomers@seattletimes.com. Johanna Somers. The owner of a fried-chicken business talks about collaboration, ambition and scratching up the determination to keep ...
