Ezell's Famous Chicken is a

Seattle Seattle ( ) is a seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the seat of King County, Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in both the state of Washington and the Pacific Northwest regio ...

fast food Fast food is a type of mass-produced food designed for commercial resale, with a strong priority placed on speed of service. It is a commercial term, limited to food sold in a restaurant or store with frozen, preheated or precooked ingredien ...

restaurant. The first restaurant was opened on February 3, 1984, in Seattle's Central District neighborhood, near Garfield High School. The restaurant chain has 12 other locations in the

Puget Sound region The Puget Sound region is a coastal area of the Pacific Northwest in the U.S. state of Washington, including Puget Sound, the Puget Sound lowlands, and the surrounding region roughly west of the Cascade Range and east of the Olympic Mountains. ...

, including a location on the

Microsoft Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational technology corporation producing computer software, consumer electronics, personal computers, and related services headquartered at the Microsoft Redmond campus located in Redmond, Washing ...

campus in Redmond that opened in 2006. In 2015, the chain opened its

Spokane Spokane ( ) is the largest city and county seat of Spokane County, Washington, United States. It is in eastern Washington, along the Spokane River, adjacent to the Selkirk Mountains, and west of the Rocky Mountain foothills, south of the Ca ...

location, its first restaurant outside of Western Washington. The first international location for Ezell's opened in June 2015, in

Sharjah Sharjah (; ar, ٱلشَّارقَة ', Gulf Arabic: ''aš-Šārja'') is the third-most populous city in the United Arab Emirates, after Dubai and Abu Dhabi, forming part of the Dubai-Sharjah-Ajman metropolitan area. Sharjah is the capital o ...

United Arab Emirates The United Arab Emirates (UAE; ar, اَلْإِمَارَات الْعَرَبِيَة الْمُتَحِدَة ), or simply the Emirates ( ar, الِْإمَارَات ), is a country in Western Asia (The Middle East). It is located at th ...

. The Sharjah location has since closed. Ezell's was made famous when talk show host

Oprah Winfrey Oprah Gail Winfrey (; born Orpah Gail Winfrey; January 29, 1954), or simply Oprah, is an American talk show host, television producer, actress, author, and philanthropist. She is best known for her talk show, ''The Oprah Winfrey Show'', br ...

called it her favorite fried chicken. There are a number of photos of her on the wall in the original Seattle location proclaiming her love of the chicken. It is also said she has the chicken flown to her in Chicago when she has a craving.

History

The restaurant was founded by Ezell Stephens and Lewis Rudd, opening its first location on February 3, 1984, in the Central District. The pair, from

Scottsville, Texas Scottsville is a city in Harrison County, Texas, United States. The population was 376 at the 2010 census, up from 263 at the 2000 census. Scottsville's population in 2020 decreased to 334. History The area was initially settled by William Thoma ...

, discussed opening a restaurant in 1978 after Ezell left the Coast Guard and Lewis left the Army. Stephens and Rudd attended

night school A night school is an adult learning school that holds classes in the evening or at night to accommodate people who work during the day. A community college or university may hold night school classes that admit undergraduates. Italy The Scuola ...

and later earned a loan from the

Small Business Administration The United States Small Business Administration (SBA) is an independent agency of the United States government that provides support to entrepreneurs and small businesses. The mission of the Small Business Administration is "to maintain and stren ...

to open their store. A second location was opened in the

University District University District can refer to a location in the United States: *University District, Detroit, Michigan * University District, Columbus, Ohio *University District, San Bernardino, California *University District, Seattle The University District ...

in 1988, but closed in 1994 after financial problems. A second round of expansion began in 1998. In 2021, Ezell's launched a "R.U.B.B. (Raising Up Black Businesses) Initiative", offering 20 inaugural grants of $2,500 each to Black-owned businesses or organizations in Washington state. The Initiative expanded to include a leadership conference the following year.

Departure of Ezell Stephens

Following a contentious lawsuit filed by Ezell Stephens, he left the company he started with his business partners Lewis and Faye. Ezell opened three restaurants in Everett, Lake City, and Renton,

Washington Washington commonly refers to: * Washington (state), United States * Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States ** A metonym for the federal government of the United States ** Washington metropolitan area, the metropolitan area centered on ...

. In November 2011, Ezell Stephens changed the name of his three locations to Heaven Sent Fried Chicken, because in the lawsuit he lost the name, but kept his recipe. In February 2019, the Renton location of Heaven Sent closed.Heaven Sent fried chicken leaves Renton, stays in Everett
/ref>

References

External links

Ezell's website

Heaven Sent Fried Chicken
{{Restaurants in Seattle African-American history in Seattle Black-owned restaurants in the United States Central District, Seattle Fast-food poultry restaurants Restaurants established in 1984 Restaurants in Seattle Chicken chains of the United States American companies established in 1984 1984 establishments in Washington (state)

History

Departure of Ezell Stephens

See also

References

External links