KFC Debuts Chicken Nuggets

[ClownLoach]

As much as I like to bash on the fast food chains that were considering moving to drive thru only and no dining room, that would be the perfect model for KFC and would get their costs down.

Maybe then they could invest in trying to make edible side dishes? The only good thing about KFC is the plain original recipe fried chicken. Instead of trying to keep expanding the menu and allowing food quality to continue to suffer, instead they need to narrow the menu and dramatically improve the quality of whatever stays.

They had a few locations in Long Beach about 20 years ago franchised by the owners of Pollys Pies, and they deliberately refused to serve the KFC menu except for the chicken itself. It was probably the best KFC in the company because of how the Pollys folks operated it. They made sides fresh including fabulous rich, creamy mashed potatoes... It was absolutely delicious. My understanding is that the KFC executives made them get rid of the fresh homemade sides because it was outside of the franchisee agreement, and they sold/closed the locations shortly after. The one I would go to in Belmont Shore languished as a no name burger place for a while then sat vacant. It just reopened as The Win-Dow and serves trendy smash burgers now, and has been remodeled to the point you would no longer recognize it as a former KFC.

[storewanderer]

As much as I like to bash on the fast food chains that were considering moving to drive thru only and no dining room, that would be the perfect model for KFC and would get their costs down.

Maybe then they could invest in trying to make edible side dishes? The only good thing about KFC is the plain original recipe fried chicken. Instead of trying to keep expanding the menu and allowing food quality to continue to suffer, instead they need to narrow the menu and dramatically improve the quality of whatever stays.

They had a few locations in Long Beach about 20 years ago franchised by the owners of Pollys Pies, and they deliberately refused to serve the KFC menu except for the chicken itself. It was probably the best KFC in the company because of how the Pollys folks operated it. They made sides fresh including fabulous rich, creamy mashed potatoes... It was absolutely delicious. My understanding is that the KFC executives made them get rid of the fresh homemade sides because it was outside of the franchisee agreement, and they sold/closed the locations shortly after. The one I would go to in Belmont Shore languished as a no name burger place for a while then sat vacant. It just reopened as The Win-Dow and serves trendy smash burgers now, and has been remodeled to the point you would no longer recognize it as a former KFC.

Does anyone eat in at KFC? I haven't seen anyone eating there in years. Ever.

That pie operator must have had a really long term franchise agreement to keep doing that. Originally KFC wasn't a formal restaurant brand/concept but sold its recipe to independent restaurants to serve as a menu item.

[Romr123]

As much as I like to bash on the fast food chains that were considering moving to drive thru only and no dining room, that would be the perfect model for KFC and would get their costs down.

Maybe then they could invest in trying to make edible side dishes? The only good thing about KFC is the plain original recipe fried chicken. Instead of trying to keep expanding the menu and allowing food quality to continue to suffer, instead they need to narrow the menu and dramatically improve the quality of whatever stays.

They had a few locations in Long Beach about 20 years ago franchised by the owners of Pollys Pies, and they deliberately refused to serve the KFC menu except for the chicken itself. It was probably the best KFC in the company because of how the Pollys folks operated it. They made sides fresh including fabulous rich, creamy mashed potatoes... It was absolutely delicious. My understanding is that the KFC executives made them get rid of the fresh homemade sides because it was outside of the franchisee agreement, and they sold/closed the locations shortly after. The one I would go to in Belmont Shore languished as a no name burger place for a while then sat vacant. It just reopened as The Win-Dow and serves trendy smash burgers now, and has been remodeled to the point you would no longer recognize it as a former KFC.

Does anyone eat in at KFC? I haven't seen anyone eating there in years. Ever.

That pie operator must have had a really long term franchise agreement to keep doing that. Originally KFC wasn't a formal restaurant brand/concept but sold its recipe to independent restaurants to serve as a menu item.

I could believe 40 years ago this was possible, but believe nearly all of those remaining franchise agreements were exited by the very early 90s.

I worked for KFC from '87 to '89 as a corporate mystery shopper (was era when KFC owned and operated about 40 percent of its' stores; mostly in the bigger urban areas, but even in urban areas there were some franchisees sprinkled around). We occasionally visited franchise markets to validate the shopping services we used, but in those days nearly all of the "KFC as a menu item" franchises had been gone for 5-7 years.

I worked there during the launch of Chicken Littles which was just after the roll-out (ha ha) of biscuits. This was a bit of a high point for food quality, as they were still mixing biscuits in-house (5# self rising flour, 1 lb shortening, 2 quarts buttermilk) and preparing coleslaw from head cabbage in a Buffalo chopper.

Some franchisees still did things a little weirdly (the franchisee in Oakland County, MI, for instance, had a small commissary and produced their own coleslaw which was green-ish (they used a touch of food coloring!). A single-store operator in Flint, MI had a beer tap. Marcus Corporation in Milwaukee served butter with their biscuits (virtually required by law in Wisconsin).

KFC as menu-item was by that time a relic of the past. Gino's (Philadelphia) had a burger-and-KFC fast food menu---these were gone by 1985 and KFC acquired the market.

Kenny King's Family Restaurants (Cleveland) closed their final sit-down restaurant in the early 80s but kept the franchise.

Harman (Salt Lake City, Seattle, Los Angeles) was the biggest franchisee at the time (and was the first one). They had the classic "nickel-a-head" handshake franchise agreement for many years later than anyone else.

At least one of the Big Boy franchisees also had KFC---believe Shoney's changed the seasoning slightly and grew Lee's Famous Recipe in those days as well.

That is not to say these types of areas had modern KFC outlets---some of them were still old cupola take-away locations, but these were definitely on their way out and nearly gone by 1987. The franchisees were heavily incentivized to put in modern fast food units (drive-through, dining rooms).

[SamSpade]

Take care at a co-branded A&W / KFC.
I personally like the nuggets; the "KFC Sauce" is a nice compliment. Like CfA without the political hangover in my market.

Anyway... I usually go to the local A&W co-brand because I truly do like the fountain A&W Root Beer or Diet Root Beer.

This last visit they gave me the "corn dog nuggets" instead of the KFC ones I was trying to order (charged me for the latter). UGH.

[jamcool]

You do know ChikFilA is a majority franchise operation.

[mjhale]

KFC as menu-item was by that time a relic of the past. Gino's (Philadelphia) had a burger-and-KFC fast food menu---these were gone by 1985 and KFC acquired the market.

Gino's in the DC area was my first exposure to KFC. Marriott ended up purchasing Gino's DC area locations to get more locations for its Roy Rogers chain. Where I lived there were already existing Roy Rogers locations near the Gino's locations. Those old Gino's locations became actual KFC locations and was the first time I experienced KFC as anything other than a menu item in another restaurant. In my circles, we thought that Roy Rogers was the superior tasting chicken. The KFC locations kind of languished as the second tier after Roy Rogers. KFC ended up picking up a few more locations here and there in the DC area after Roy Rogers failed after the Hardees takeover. My feeling is that KFC has never really been that strong in the DC area. Popeyes is the one with a better product and more locations.

[ClownLoach]

As much as I like to bash on the fast food chains that were considering moving to drive thru only and no dining room, that would be the perfect model for KFC and would get their costs down.

Maybe then they could invest in trying to make edible side dishes? The only good thing about KFC is the plain original recipe fried chicken. Instead of trying to keep expanding the menu and allowing food quality to continue to suffer, instead they need to narrow the menu and dramatically improve the quality of whatever stays.

They had a few locations in Long Beach about 20 years ago franchised by the owners of Pollys Pies, and they deliberately refused to serve the KFC menu except for the chicken itself. It was probably the best KFC in the company because of how the Pollys folks operated it. They made sides fresh including fabulous rich, creamy mashed potatoes... It was absolutely delicious. My understanding is that the KFC executives made them get rid of the fresh homemade sides because it was outside of the franchisee agreement, and they sold/closed the locations shortly after. The one I would go to in Belmont Shore languished as a no name burger place for a while then sat vacant. It just reopened as The Win-Dow and serves trendy smash burgers now, and has been remodeled to the point you would no longer recognize it as a former KFC.

Does anyone eat in at KFC? I haven't seen anyone eating there in years. Ever.

That pie operator must have had a really long term franchise agreement to keep doing that. Originally KFC wasn't a formal restaurant brand/concept but sold its recipe to independent restaurants to serve as a menu item.

I could believe 40 years ago this was possible, but believe nearly all of those remaining franchise agreements were exited by the very early 90s.

I worked for KFC from '87 to '89 as a corporate mystery shopper (was era when KFC owned and operated about 40 percent of its' stores; mostly in the bigger urban areas, but even in urban areas there were some franchisees sprinkled around). We occasionally visited franchise markets to validate the shopping services we used, but in those days nearly all of the "KFC as a menu item" franchises had been gone for 5-7 years.

I worked there during the launch of Chicken Littles which was just after the roll-out (ha ha) of biscuits. This was a bit of a high point for food quality, as they were still mixing biscuits in-house (5# self rising flour, 1 lb shortening, 2 quarts buttermilk) and preparing coleslaw from head cabbage in a Buffalo chopper.

Some franchisees still did things a little weirdly (the franchisee in Oakland County, MI, for instance, had a small commissary and produced their own coleslaw which was green-ish (they used a touch of food coloring!). A single-store operator in Flint, MI had a beer tap. Marcus Corporation in Milwaukee served butter with their biscuits (virtually required by law in Wisconsin).

KFC as menu-item was by that time a relic of the past. Gino's (Philadelphia) had a burger-and-KFC fast food menu---these were gone by 1985 and KFC acquired the market.

Kenny King's Family Restaurants (Cleveland) closed their final sit-down restaurant in the early 80s but kept the franchise.

Harman (Salt Lake City, Seattle, Los Angeles) was the biggest franchisee at the time (and was the first one). They had the classic "nickel-a-head" handshake franchise agreement for many years later than anyone else.

At least one of the Big Boy franchisees also had KFC---believe Shoney's changed the seasoning slightly and grew Lee's Famous Recipe in those days as well.

That is not to say these types of areas had modern KFC outlets---some of them were still old cupola take-away locations, but these were definitely on their way out and nearly gone by 1987. The franchisees were heavily incentivized to put in modern fast food units (drive-through, dining rooms).

The main unit that deviated greatly from the menu was Belmont Shore on 2nd St in Long Beach. There was another location somewhere in that East Long Beach area they operated in a more traditional manner with a few variations to the menu. Belmont Shore was a prototypical KFC but the Pollys folks painted the red awnings teal and added a sign that said "Colonel's Corner" because it was the nickname of this unusual 3 way intersection which made a drive-thru impossible. I am assuming this location was very old as you state and was probably built 40 years ago. This was operating that way until the late 1990s, I grew up there having moved to LB in 1994 and we ate there regularly until they had to change to the "normal" KFC menu. So this might have gone on until about the year 2000? They did the regular chicken, extra crispy, and while it was still offered they had the infamous Rotisserie Gold, biscuits were standard plus they made cornbread, and the rest of the sides were all custom. I think their sides were very similar to those offered at Boston Market which at the time was blowing up in SoCal, I remember the deliciously rich mashed potatoes and homemade tasting gravy, they had garlic green beans, roasted red potatoes, fresh roasted corn, fresh sautéed mixed veggies, a Mac and Cheese that might have been sourced from Stouffers but still better than what KFC has today, some baked beans, potato wedges, and coleslaw that didn't look like confetti. All were displayed in hot/cold cases and served to order, nothing was pre-packed. They also had a sign that said "Operated by Polly's Pies" which was a Cocos or Sheri's type chain that only has a few locations left these days. They also had a coffee shop next door that roasted all of the beans used at the Polly's chain, that operated until very recently as Polly's Gourmet Coffee before being rebranded under the owners name (Sheldrake Coffee).

Either way, it was a non-standard location, I think they didn't honor the ad prices which is probably what got them in trouble with corporate. But the combination of really good, fresh sides with the classic KFC chicken was just fantastic.

[Romr123]

I spent a pleasurable nostalgic afternoon yesterday trolling through annual reports for KFC and Heublein from 1966-2005...kind of interesting to follow the trajectory of them through the years.

Some wild forays for them (H. Salt Fish and Chips (lingered for about 10 years between 1970 and 1980); Kentucky Beef (!), a Hotel/Motel business in the 60s (put out of it's misery quickly---they recruited in some heavy-hotel-hitters and had to pay them a severance big enough to appear in the annual report); Zantigo (--was higher-end than Taco Bell when it got up to about 80 units in the Midwest in the early 80s, when combined at Pepsico with Taco Bell was quickly absorbed by TB though a few of the Zantigo buildings are just now reaching end-of-life; they still have a few locations in Minneapolis).

The former classic KFC building (stucco, cupola, dining room and drive through) was prototyped in Columbus, OH in 1978 and was about 80% of the store fleet by 1988 when I was there (matches my recollection).

They had quite a fall in the late 70s under Heublein then re-emerged on a QSCV program around 1980 to get back to a better operational place. Extra Crispy was rolled out in about 1973, they moved to in-store made slaw around 1980, in store biscuits were about 1982.

They were actively buying out multi-unit urban franchisees through the 1970s (and would re-franchise the odds/ends rural and exurban locations) to have higher-volume (urban/suburban) locations corporate and lower-volume locations franchised. They only entered NYC in the mid-70s and had huge-volume locations (reading between the lines, they struggled a bit with how to operate in those surroundings).


Remembering back to working there, Washington DC (the district specifically) was a strong urban market for them, and they were corporate stores, but the same strength didn't translate to the suburban areas (which may have been mixed between corporate and franchise stores--I don't recall). The entire DC market was on their Urban program (Spicy Crispy chicken/greens/mac and cheese sides) which was unusual (other regions had a few stores on it, but DC it was throughout). Richmond and Norfolk/Tidewater were both corporate areas. I seem to recall Popeyes was quite well established in the DC area at the time.

[Brian Lutz]

From some of the old newspaper research I did while I lived there I know there was a Kentucky Roast Beef location in Downtown Bellevue WA for a brief time in the mid to late 1960s, based on the descriptions in the paper it sounds like it was basically an Arby's clone.

[tkaye]

From some of the old newspaper research I did while I lived there I know there was a Kentucky Roast Beef location in Downtown Bellevue WA for a brief time in the mid to late 1960s, based on the descriptions in the paper it sounds like it was basically an Arby's clone.

In Seattle, the Ivar's at 135th and Aurora was a Kentucky Roast Beef that opened in 1969 as a package with the KFC that still operates next door. There was an interlude from about 1974 to 1979 as Arthur Treacher's. (The chain of Ivar's Seafood Bars began with the conversion of all the Treacher's in the Seattle-Tacoma area.) Kentucky Beef was also in Renton, where the Safeway gas station now sits at S. 3rd & Rainier.

Finally, there was one in Spokane at Division & Francis. (Mattress Firm is now there.) When it opened, the local Arby's franchisee promptly sued for $5,000 and a two-year injunction against the KFC franchisee. It ended up becoming an Arby's. There was just a brief listing of the case in the newspaper... it would be interesting to know what the specifics were.