Where is the closest churchs fried chicken

For groups of all sizes, try Church's family meals, served with two or three large sides and enough honey biscuits to share. And don't forget to check out the restaurant's signature jalapeno poppers. Created in , they were the restaurant's first side dish. Ready to eat? Place your lunch or dinner delivery order today on Grubhub. Our site is delivered by JavaScript.

To continue, please enable JavaScript in your browser's preferences. Reload the homepage. Sign in. Get Church's Chicken delivered with Grubhub. Find a location near you. Find food. Grubhub Chains Church's Chicken. Fast delivery Enter your address to browse the Church's Chicken menu online , find a Church's Chicken near you and choose what to eat.

Salad Value Meal Trending now. Church's Chicken nearby. Want to see the nearest Church's Chicken? Allow the browser to use your location. Early in , James Parker, executive vice-president of operations quit. He was soon followed by chief financial officer William Storm, who resigned according to a company official because of "philosophical differences with management.

Harvin attempted to be more aggressive in the months following Storm's departure. He made a greater commitment to advertising and acquired the Houston-based Ron's Krispy Fried Chicken, a more upscale unit chain that the company hoped would establish it in more upscale, suburban markets, as opposed to Church's traditional inner-city base. In addition, Church's launched a new concept, Charro's, to compete in the charbroiled, Mexican-style area. However, by early November , Harvin resigned and Bamberger returned to replace him.

According to press reports, Bamberger engineered Harvin's ouster and stepped in to protect his investment in Church's. Bamberger served as Church's president on an interim basis until he was able to lure Richard F. Sherman away from the Hardees restaurant chain.

The company soon closed more than units and pumped up the advertising budget. Efforts were also made to grow the G. Because of Bamberger's return, Church's became the subject of constant takeover rumors which maintained that Bamberger was simply dressing up the company in order to sell it. Also during this period, Church's was part of a bizarre rumor that became something of an urban legend in the African-American communities of Memphis, Denver, Detroit, Chicago, and San Diego. According to the stories, Church's was owned by the Klu Klux Klan, which incorporated something into the chicken recipe that would render African-American males either impotent or sterile.

The rumors, however bereft of logic, did have a negative impact on Church's sales, according to company memos that came to light during a court case involving a franchisee that sued the company because it had not informed him about the rumors.

Sherman and Bamberger tried to strike a balance between company-owned and franchised operations as well as taking steps, such as introducing catfish to the menu, to revitalize the chain. Despite management's adoption of a long-range strategy, Church's was still dogged by takeover speculation, for which there was a sound underpinning: most of the company-owned restaurants were located on land owned by Church's, which made the company more valuable than might appear on the surface.

Like Bamberger, Copeland grew up poor, a high-school dropout in New Orleans who worked as a soda jerk to help support his mother. After working for his older brother, who ran a chain of donut shops, Copeland became a franchisee when he was just He was running a successful donut operation when he decided to get into the chicken fast food business after a Kentucky Fried Chicken store opened in New Orleans.

In , he launched Chicken on the Run, which at first proved to be a disaster. Only when he adopted a spicier Cajun-inspired recipe did the business turn around. Copeland began franchising in , and by the early s Popeyes trailed only Kentucky Fried Chicken and Church's as the largest fast-food chicken chains.

Copeland was a one-man management team, but his interests expanded beyond Popeyes to include other restaurant concepts, so that by he established the positions of president, chief financial officer, and executive vice-president of operations.

Copeland was interested in expanding through acquisitions and soon targeted Church's, which led to speculation that Kilbourne, who had signed an agreement not to disclose confidential information when he left Church's, might have revealed company secrets to help Copeland craft an offer. At the very least, Kilbourne was able to persuade Copeland to make a bid despite the two chains' seeming incompatibility.

Popeyes, although smaller, was decidedly more upscale than Church's. According to Restaurant Business, "Kilbourne's thinking went this way. Church's was a valid concept that had overexpanded. It was an ideal acquisition target; it had no debt and it was rich in real estate, with some 70 percent of the stores company-owned.

Popeyes would buy Church's, slash the losers, and sell off competing stores to Popeyes franchisees for conversion and also to Church's franchises. A much smaller but profitable chain of to stores would be left. Sale proceeds would be used to pare down debt. The key to making the deal work was the immediate closing of another money-losing units and the sell off of more units.

However, after closing the losing stores, Copeland failed to sell off properties because he asked franchisees to pay unrealistic prices. After the first year, only 54 Church's were sold to franchisees instead of Franchisees also became disgruntled because Copeland increased the cost of a reformulated marinade mix as well as the ad fund charges. Efforts to convert Church's stores to the Popeyes' format also proved disappointing. In October , the court approved a plan by a group of Copeland's creditors that resulted in the creation of America's Favorite Chicken Company, Inc.

AFC to serve as the new parent company for Popeyes and Church's. Sometime in the s, however, Churchie underwent a physical transformation from a man in a chef's hat to a full-blown chicken via Texas Histor y.

Per Restaurant News' Church's Chicken timeline, it looks like this happened around the time that the brand introduced its record-setting Church's Big Sandwich.

The original Churchie occasionally pops up, but it's mostly only in social media throwback photos via Facebook. That's right, Church's Chicken didn't go after the giant sporting events, and instead, decided to lend its name in sponsorship of world champion chess tournaments. According to the obituary of Bill Church Jr. A New York Times article cites the company sponsoring chess tournaments as far back as , and a partnership with the United States Chess Federation continued up through at least via Red Lion Data.

As for what a Church's Chicken-sponsored chess tournament was like, well, the San Antonio tournament was dubbed the "Fried Chicken Tournament" and included some of the best chess players in the world. Winners of the tournament didn't merely walk away with a lousy T-shirt or box of free fried chicken either.

George W. While four grand is certainly nothing to scoff at, it was apparently too low at the time for chess prodigy Bobby Fischer, who declined the invite to attend Church's chess tournament. It's no secret that was a big year for fast food chicken when Popeyes kicked off the "chicken sandwich wars. Until late , the brand hadn't even had a national advertising campaign in 10 years! Considering that the restaurant chain has seen years of sales declines, it's no surprise that numerous locations have closed.

While Eater reported that 15 locations closed in for not paying taxes, other locations closed without much explanation at all. In , Greenville, South Carolina saw several of its Church's Chicken locations close with only handwritten notes on the doors asking customers to visit other locations.

As for why the locations closed, Church's didn't go into much detail, yet some sleuthing by Greenville News linked the restaurants to a foreclosure lawsuit. That's at least more information than the Church's Chicken fans of Mansfield, Ohio were given in A reporter with the Richland Source who thought they had picked up an "easy" story was given the runaround from every source and came up with diddly-squat for answers behind the local Church's Chicken closure.

While Church's Chicken may be eyeing better days ahead, just know that if your local Church's Chicken does shutter, the specific reason why may very well remain a mystery.

Fast food can be a pretty cutthroat business and there's certainly something to be said for the old adage: there's strength in numbers. It's not uncommon for restaurants to be part of the same chain , and for a number of years, Church's was part of what could best be described as a fried chicken power couple. Popeyes and Church's might seem like they'd be sworn enemies, but in , they united their fried chicken powers as one via Red Lion Data. While the two restaurants operated separately, they were theoretically the second largest fried chicken chain — after KFC — in the United States.

The Popeyes and Church's partnership lasted for 15 years, but eventually, all good things come to a finger-lickin' end, and in , the chicken brand's parent company, AFC Enterprises, Inc. Head over to the menu page of the Church's Chicken website and you'll see a lot of the typical sides you might find at any fast food fried chicken joint: mashed potatoes, macaroni and cheese, biscuits, coleslaw, etc. The one item that stands out from the norm, though, is the jalapenos.

While Church's does offer fried jalapenos stuffed with cheese, pickled jalapenos are the classic Church's Chicken side dish.

The jalapeno peppers have been on the menu at Church's Chicken from the beginning and according to the company's vice president of brand strategy, Jennifer Chasteen, are a nod to the brand's Texas roots via QSR Magazine. Chasteen said the peppers are the "original" side item and the proper way to enjoy them is by "squeezing jalapeno juice" over the fried chicken for a kick of heat.

Church's Chicken takes its jalapenos pretty seriously, too. The company's supply chain vice president reportedly took a trip down to Mexico to visit jalapeno farms and negotiate pricing for 80, cases of the peppers per year via Supply Chain Dive. The fast food myth is nothing new. From strange mystery meats to anti-military agendas, fast food myths have been around for years — some are just more disturbing than others.

In the s, a rather unsettling rumor was going around that Church's Chicken had links to the Ku Klux Klan and was actively involved in a plot against black Americans via Chicago Tribune.

Yeah, this one's a doozy. While Church's didn't publicly respond to the rumors, it should be noted that it was nothing more than an urban myth and completely untrue.