Sunday, October 20, 2013

Food, Service, and Prices from Yesterday at the Chicken Coop

[Note: This post, prepared originally for the NC Folklife Institute's NCFood blog, is hosted on the institute’s website, with excerpts and a link to the website posted here.] 

A few places serving food in our state are caught in a time warp and remain unchanged since the days that they opened. Price’s Chicken Coop, established in 1962, in the South End of Charlotte is definitely one. Seeing the name of Chicken Coop, you know exactly what to order.

The classic southern dish is fried chicken. Although just about every home in the South has a favorite family recipe, in the Charlotte area the preferred chicken is marinated in a secret blend for more than a day before being fried in peanut oil by the Price family. The prices are almost as popular as the chicken itself. A to-go chicken box is as low as $6.25, and a chicken sandwich only $3.40.