BELLEVUE, Wash. — After 40 years, you can be sure Lewis Rudd knows his way around a kitchen. So does his brother Darnell Rudd. And sister Faye Stephens. From East Texas, they brought a secret fried chicken recipe to Seattle, opening their first Ezell's restaurant right across the street from Garfield High School in February of 1984.
The recipe may have been secret but Ezell's became an immediate Seattle sensation.
"We've let the chicken out of the coop," laughed Lewis Rudd.
Never frozen, the chicken goes through a precise double battering process that locks in chicken juices and locks out the oils.
"There was just not a better option for chicken," said Rudd, who learned his technique from Brown's Fried Chicken in Marshall, Texas. "Great concept."
The family knew they had the right concept. Opening near a high school was the first step to market the chicken.
But not the only one.
Among the photographs in the Ezell's archive is this one, of Lewis Rudd dressed up in a chicken costume.
"We were in the Black Community Festival Parade that first year that we opened up, and we went roller skating down the Central District and I had the chicken costume on, handing out little chicken eggs," Rudd laughed.
In a couple of hours he would be addressing the Bellevue Rotary Club, an indication of how much he's learned about business over the decades.
Five years in, Ezell's was scraping by when one of the most famous people in the world called.
Lewis Rudd holds his hand to his ear to recreate the moment.
'This is Oprah Winfrey and I want some of that chicken and I want it now.'
The man answering the phone said 'How do I know it's Oprah?'
She said 'Bring the chicken down and you'll see'
He did and he saw.
It was Oprah Winfrey.
When Winfrey mentioned it on her show her followers made Ezell's Chicken into Ezell's "Famous" Chicken.
Now employing more than 300 people as far away as Portland and Spokane, Ezell's is a true success story.
All month employees will be wearing gold throwback tees to celebrate and we witnessed the siblings recreating a classic early day photograph. Instead of saying "Cheese," Rudd let them into a chant of "Fresh, Good and Fast!"
What does the future hold for Ezell's? We only know it will taste real good.
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