Lee's Famous Recipe Chicken
Lee's Famous Recipe Chicken is a casual dining franchise founded in 1966 specializing in chicken, homestyle sides, and biscuits.
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Lee's Famous Recipe Chicken | |
Type | |
Industry | Restaurants |
Genre | Fast food |
Founded | 1966 |
Founder | Lee Cummings Harold Omer |
Headquarters | , U.S. |
Number of locations | 131 |
Area served | Worldwide, but primarily Midwest |
Key people | Ryan Weaver (CEO) |
Products | Chicken, biscuits |
Services | Catering |
Revenue | System-Wide Sales US$210 million (2021) |
Owner | Ryan Weaver, Artemis Lane LP |
Number of employees | 125 (2021) |
Parent | Artemis Restaurant Corp |
Website | leesfamousrecipe.com |
Colonel Aaron Lee Cummings was Colonel Harland Sanders Nephew, he helped his uncle build Kentucky Fried Chicken, he helped Sell the pressure cookers for frying chicken and helped recruit Franchisees, One being Jack Pirtles in TN
Which you can read about here : https://memphisrestaurants.com/directory/#!biz/id/59835bc89865a154287b23ca
In 1964 the Colonel sold Kentucky Fried Chicken to John Y Brown Jr. And Jack C Massey, Lee was the president of Kentucky Fried Chicken up to that point, when the sale went through Lee decided to Leave his role at Kentucky Fried Chicken,
being A former corporate member of the brand they made him sign papers restricting Lee From competing in certain ways, so he asked his brother in law Harold Omer to come with him to Lima Ohio where they would open the first famous recipe location Harold’s Take Home Famous Recipe Fried Chicken. They would expand rapidly after this, Lee was sued by KFC in 1966 to prevent him from copying the brand including similar building designs, cartoon designs, slogans and the release valve on the pressure cooker designed for chicken,
Lee worked his way around all of this, his brother in law being a engineer developed a new valve for the cooker making it their own, Lee was forbidden from using his cousin (another nephew of the colonels) that worked for KFC Colonel James Wilbur Sanders.
Following this Lee was deemed the national spokesperson for the brand for his relationship to the colonel his knowledge and experience in fried chicken and his celebrity status
Famous recipe to this day has the support of the Colonels family, they still make it the way Lee did in 1966 original Famous Recipe honey dipped and pressure cooked to perfection.
They have over 130 locations across the country and are looking to expand to potential future Franchisees
They are on Instagram Facebook Twitter YouTube and TikTok.
As we move through the future, more people will know about Lee's and want to try them
Lee's Uncle said “if any chicken is going to make it in this world it has to be like my chicken if not better” and Lee certainly made it better and had the support of his uncle
The History Of Famous Recipe is rich and famous, they have connections to many of the fast food brands you may be familiar with.
The only way to beat our competitors is to have a better product than them, when you take your first bite of Famous Recipe you’ll know why famous is in our name, and understand why we decided to keep our originality and what made us famous.
History
After the sale of KFC in 1964, Lee Cummings (the nephew of KFC founder Colonel Harland Sanders)[1] began developing his recipe, later to be known as "Famous Recipe."[2] In 1966, Cummings, along with Harold Omer, started "Harold's Take-Home" in Lima, Ohio, where Cummings first introduced his Famous Recipe Chicken.[3] Later that year, Cummings opened the restaurant's first franchise in Columbus, Ohio. Locations in Springfield, Dayton, and Cincinnati, Ohio followed in the coming years, as well as a unit in Kalamazoo, Michigan.
In 1981, Cummings sold the chain to Shoney's Restaurants in Nashville, Tennessee.[2] He died in 2002 at the age of 80.[4] Shoney's continued to operate Lee's along with their own Captain D's and Shoney's Restaurants until 1995, when Lee's was sold to RTM Restaurant Group in Atlanta, Georgia.[5][6]
In May 2003, the chain had 29 company-owned locations and 125 franchised locations. In October 2003, Lee's Famous Recipes Inc. purchased the chain from RTM. In April 2013, Famous Recipe Group LLC purchased the chain from Lee's Famous Recipes, Inc.
See also
References
- Great American Eating Experiences: Local Specialties, Favorite Restaurants, Food Festivals, Diners, Roadside Stands, and More. National Geographic Books. 2016. ISBN 9781426216398.
- Desloge, Rick (21 November 2004). "Nothing to bawk at". Biz Journals. Retrieved 26 October 2019.
- Crosby, Meg (23 August 2017). "Local connection to Col. Sanders". Lima. Retrieved 26 October 2019.
- "CONTINUED FROM 9A Lee's Chicken founder dies Cummings had Ocala ties Headline goes here Words here".
- "RTM Restaurant Group." International Directory of Company Histories. The Gale Group, Inc, 2006. Answers.com 01 Aug. 2011.
- "COMPANY NEWS; SHONEY'S AGREES TO SELL LEE'S FAMOUS RECIPE CHAIN". The New York Times. 11 July 1995. Retrieved 26 October 2019.