Prince's Hot Chicken Shack is a restaurant in
Nashville, Tennessee
Nashville is the capital city of the U.S. state of Tennessee and the seat of Davidson County. With a population of 689,447 at the 2020 U.S. census, Nashville is the most populous city in the state, 21st most-populous city in the U.S., and t ...
, known for its
hot chicken
Hot chicken (or Nashville hot chicken) is a type of fried chicken that is a local specialty of Nashville, Tennessee, in the United States. In its typical preparation, it is a portion of breast, thigh, or wing that has been marinated in a wate ...
, and is credited with popularizing the dish and inspiring restaurants with similar offerings. The business was started in 1945 by James Thornton Prince, and in 1980 ownership was passed to his great-niece André Prince Jeffries.
History
While impossible to verify, the development of hot chicken is reportedly accidental. Prince was purportedly a womanizer, and after a particularly late night his girlfriend at the time cooked him a fried chicken breakfast with hot pepper as revenge. Prince, however, liked the taste so much that he and his brothers created their own recipe and opened the Bar-B-Que Chicken Shack.
The café was originally located at 28th Ave. and Jefferson St.,
but moved downtown into Hell’s Half Acre and close to the Ryman Auditorium, home of the
Grand Ole Opry
The ''Grand Ole Opry'' is a weekly American country music stage concert in Nashville, Tennessee, founded on November 28, 1925, by George D. Hay as a one-hour radio "barn dance" on WSM. Currently owned and operated by Opry Entertainment (a divi ...
. In its heyday, the Opry stars were headed there after every performance. With the atmosphere of segregation and being a favorite of the Opry's stars, a separate room was built for white guests. Whites walked through the main dining room and the kitchen to reach the separate room at the back of the building.
It moved to its East Nashville location on Ewing Dr. in 1988.
When Thornton Prince died, his brother Will took over. His wife Maude ran the business when he passed. In 1980, Maude decided that Thornton's great-niece André Prince Jeffries should take over Prince’s. Jeffries renamed the restaurant by taking out the BBQ in the name.
In December 2018, a Ford Explorer crashed into the strip mall housing a Prince's location on Ewing Drive, setting it on fire. While the restaurant itself was undamaged and Prince Jeffries initially believed that it would be closed for only two weeks, extensive damage to the building and the landlord's delays in securing repairs led her to announce a permanent closure seven months later. The location had been operating since 1989.
Honors and awards
The Travel Channel
Travel Channel (stylized as Trvl Channel since 2018) is an American pay television channel owned by Warner Bros. Discovery, which had previously owned the channel from 1997 to 2007. The channel is headquartered in New York, New York, United S ...
show ''
Food Paradise'' has named Prince's as Nashville's best place to get hot chicken (2013-02-06 episode). They were also on the network's ''
Bizarre Foods America'' (2014-04-07 episode) and ''
Man v. Food Nation'' (2011-06-08 episode). ''Gourmet'' magazine named it as one of Nashville's four "don't-miss dining experiences". In 2013, they were named an American Classic by the
James Beard Foundation Award
The James Beard Foundation Awards are annual awards presented by the James Beard Foundation to recognize chefs, restaurateurs, authors and journalists in the United States. They are scheduled around James Beard's May 5 birthday. The media awar ...
s.
The Daily Meal
The Daily Meal is a food and drinks website. It is the first site launched by Spanfeller Media Group. Jim Spanfeller is a former CEO of Forbes.com. In 2016, Spanfeller was acquired by Tribune Publishing.
Content
The Daily Meal produces original co ...
ranked it seventh in its 2017 list of America's 75 Best Fried Chicken Spots.
See also
*
List of chicken restaurants
*
List of companies based in Nashville, Tennessee
References
External links
*
{{Use mdy dates, date=January 2018
Black-owned restaurants in the United States
Companies based in Nashville, Tennessee
Restaurants in Nashville, Tennessee
Restaurants established in 1945
1945 establishments in Tennessee
James Beard Foundation Award winners
Chicken chains of the United States