I was having a discussion with my coworkers about KFC and Popeye's chicken. One of them made the claim that only KFC is allowed in Utah due to pressure by the morg and that it took years to get the Popeye's on Hill AFB.

I am highly skeptical about this claim. I've tried googling but haven't found anything.

Have any of you heard about this (or something like this) before? Any shared links would be appreciated.

I happen to be friends with the family who partnered with ol' Colonel Sanders way back when the good Colonel was trying to sell his secret receipe to restaurants across the Rocky Mountain region. A little history for you: The Colonel has developed this wonderful batch of seasonings for fried chicken. He traveled from restaurant to restaurant trying to sell the receipe and got nowhere. People weren't too hip on the Colonel or his seasonings. He ran across a man in Denver, I believe, who took the Colonel up on his offer and they started using the seasonings in his restaurant. The chicken was a hit so this man and Sanders partnered up and began the KFC brand. It grew quickly and now there are KFC stores all over the world. My friend's father was Sanders' business partner when it first started.

The man and his family are not LDS but have a lot of LDS franchisees across the West. They have found that the LDS owners are hard working and run clean and profitable stores.

Now Popeyes on the other hand started going up on military installations a while back. The DOD gave approval in the '90s and you will see more of them as time goes on. I even had Popeyes while at Schofield Barracks in Hawaii a while back.

I hope this helps.

Lump- you're right. It was SLC. My bad. Harmon's HQ's are now in Denver.

The first franchise was by Pete Harman in South Salt Lake City in 1952.

I just checked his bio, and he's 91 or thereabouts...

He was a friend of my grandfather's in the Lion's Club, and I seem to recall reading somewhere that he was a bit of a Jack Mormon although he did donate some money to BYU and asked that a building be named after him...

Here's a '96 bio...

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m3190/is_n40_v30/ai_18779118/

Other chicken franchises and restaurants have tried to gain a foothold here, but nothing appears to have come of their efforts... I remember Maddox's restaurant in Brigham City (still there, anyone?) tried to open another one in Salt Lake and nada...

Hmmm. a slightly different take on the story... I do remember mention of the "Do Drop Inn," and i don't know how much of the following is accurate, but I will vouch for the "Pete Harman is a stand-up guy" testimony...

http://www.kydirect.net/photographs/the-worlds-almost-first-kentucky-fried-chicken-restaurant-eating-where-it-all-began/

I'll pick my dad's memories...

BTW, there was also a "Coon Chicken Inn" in Salt Lake that lasted until the early 50's...

http://www.ferris.edu/jimcrow/links/chicken/



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 12/22/2010 08:28PM by SL Cabbie.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/22/2010 08:14PM by mav.

Wow, just came across this information. The one and only 'first' restaurant to make and sell Colonel Saunders chicken was, Harman's Cafe in Murray, Utah. Harman's Cafe came up with the name for the Colonels famous 'secret recipe' calling it "Kentucky Fried Chicken". Claiming it was finger licking good! That was in 1952. Some 'older folks' who live in Salt Lake City, Utah and remember eating at Harman's...still to this day refer to KFC as, Harman's Chicken! TRUE STORY!!!

. . . lick other people's fingers.

The first KFC franchise was in South Salt Lake. The early franchisees had the right to include their own name in the KFC title (e.g. "Harmon's Kentucky Fried Chicken"). Other early franchisees who had the right to include their own name were in British Columbia and Manitoba, Canada. I found it interesting that a SE U.S. food got its start as a franchise operation in the mountain west and western Canadian provinces.

So, KFC does have a Utah connection, but I cannot imagine any reason why LDS Inc would want to keep other chicken franchises out of the state, nor how they would be able to do that.

Chick-fil-a has been around Utah for a long time. Maybe the reason there has been no Popeyes Chicken is because it is a small regional franchise. I've never heard of it before, and I spent most of my adult life in the midwest. A conspiracy by LDS Inc and all the city governments in Utah to deny business licenses to all competing chicken-only restaurants is too lame to even qualify as a decent urban legend.

The first KFC in the world is still there on 3900 South State in Salt Lake City.

3900 South State IS the original location but the original building was torn down several years ago and a new and larger building was built in it's place. The new building includes a museum of sorts. There is the original pressure fryer and one of Sander's suits and some other memorabilia there.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/22/2010 05:53PM by mav.

Like how See's is only sold in the western part of the US. Never knew popeye's existed until they showed up on Hill AFB. Are they any good? I'm not really into fried food unless really depressed.

DH *loves* Popeye's but the only one near us in the Philly burbs closed. Chick-fil-A . . . . now that's a fine use of poultry! Their chicken, egg & cheese bagel is like crack on a bun :-)

They make chicken mild and extra spicy. It is some of the best fried chicken I have ever tasted. It is pure Cajun Louisiana style. They have red beans and rice, dirty rice, sweet potato pie, buttermilk bisquits with butter and honey.

Damn it now I want Popeyes.

Back in the day it was common found Popeyes in "Black Neighborhoods" it was that good.

I LOVED their red beans and rice when I lived in the south. Alas, not I am in the very northwest and we have no Popeyes. Not even at our local air force base. I know 'cause my son works for AAFES. :(



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 12/23/2010 04:14AM by Rebeckah.

Ingredients
1 cup uncooked long-grain white rice
2 cups water
2 tablespoons butter
1 onion, chopped
1/2 green bell pepper, chopped
16 ounces smoked sausage, thinly sliced
1 (15 ounce) can kidney beans, drained
1 (14.5 ounce) can diced tomatoes, undrained
Directions
1.Bring the rice and water to boil in a pot. Cover, reduce heat to low, and simmer 20 minutes.
2.Melt butter in a skillet over medium heat. Stir in onion and green bell pepper, and cook until tender. Stir in sausage, and cook until evenly browned. Mix in beans and tomatoes, and continue cooking until heated through. Serve skillet mixture over the rice.
I would also suggest some cajun seasoning or Emeril's Essence.

For example you will find Burger King on Army and Air Force bases but McDonalds on Navy bases. Army and Air Force exchanges are managed by AAFES (Army & Air Force Exchange Service) together while the Navy is independent (Navy Exchange, NEX).

Popeyes is the chicken franchise in pretty much every AAFES (Army & Air Force Exchange Service) food court around the world, even overseas. I doubt local Utah culture or politics had much to do with it.

Yup... My 17 y/o daughter works at the one here in Baumholder, Germany where we're stationed. Nothing better that Popeyes PLUS an employee discount!!!

I don't think the state of Utah has ANY influence in what restaurants go in on the air base.

A mormon family owned many of the KFC franchises in New Mexico.

I love fried chicken. I think Popeye's Chicken is the best, but KFC has the sides cornered. KFC's are all over San Diego. I only know of 2 Popeye's. I think they are just a smaller company.

My aunt and uncle are mormon and owned alot of the NM KFCs. They also owned Captain D's francchises and A&W. I wonder if it's the same family, probably.

I doubt that there is alot of intentional interferance in UT. Popeyes is just growing its market and is late to the UT scene. Albuquerque has a little under 1/2 dozen of 'em that have sprung up in the lact 3-4 years. Personally I love popeyes, I got hooked when I was in TX lying for the lard and was glad to see them start moving further west.

The Harmon family brought KFC to SLC about 1951 or so.
They are heavy mormpn. Do the math

I'd eat my shorts. In fact, they might taste better.

Popeye's sucks. So does Bojangles (another populare fried chicken franchise in the South). KFC screwed with their recipe in the 90's and it is uncomparable to how it was in the old days.

Alas, there is no good place to get a fried chicken fix like there used to be.

Thanx for the verification.

I thought I was imagining it.

I just knew something had changed but couldn't put my finger on it.

Why is the closest El Pollo Loco in Utah County?

Why none in SL County?

There is an LDS family that owns most of the KFC stores in the Pacific NW (or at least WA,OR & MT).

I know this because I was thier corporate pilot in the early 80's. I ate so much KFC that I can hardly even stomach the odor these days.

As a kid, I can still remember chicken from the original Harmons KFC in SLC.

I'd never had it before a trip to the south 2 years ago - it's so much better than KFC IMO it isn't even funny.

Where the h@ll am I going to get fried chicken at 2:00 a.m.?!

;o)

featured a huge black man statue with his legs spread and the entrance was between his legs.

So wrong on so many levels.

Anagrammy

KFC under Yum Brands, headquartered in Louisville, KY which is where I'm from, actually had started in Corbin , KY and when Sanders decided he wanted to expand Pete was the only person who would take him up on his offer so they opened up the first franchise in SLC. It has nothing to do with the morg-it's just the typical Utah mindset of we have everything here and so why would you change us attitude.

Maddox is still open in Brigham City. Best restaurant I know. Great homemade rolls with honey butter. They raise their on beef/buffalo. Homemade pies. Just take the exit to BC and follow all the fat people!

I got one up that way two years ago and discovered the Red Baron Motel had become a Holiday Inn...

But it was the middle of the night...

I actually experimented with different ways of frying chicken for a time there (I'm a pretty good cook, but I never got the hang of doing chicken; I barbecue it these days), so I know how Maddox does theirs differently than the Colonel did...

Nice to now some icons survive... Maddox's in Brigham City, the Bluebird in Logan...

In the UK we have KFC, MacDonalds, Nandos, Favorite Chicken and Southern Fried Chicken franchises. SFC is good, KFC good, but can be way too greasy.

It may have less to do with the church trying to push a monopoly, and more of a matter of how the members view the chicken restaurants. KFC was the original, and is very mainstream. Chicken is chicken, and if you are a conservative uptight TBM, who can't even stand the idea of change, you are probably going to view KFC as the one true chicken joint.