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Ezell's Famous Chicken is a Seattle fast food restaurant. The first restaurant was opened on February 3, 1984 in Seattle, Washington's Central District neighborhood, which is still open today. The restaurant chain has 12 other locations in Skyway, North Seattle, Renton, Lynnwood, Woodinville, Lake City, Bellevue, Tacoma, Mill Creek and Kent. In 2006, Ezell's opened a location on the Microsoft campus in Redmond. In 2015 the chain opened its first restaurant outside of the Western Washington area, across the state in Spokane. Ezell's also opened its first international location in June 2015, located in Sharjah, United Arab Emirates. The Sharjah location has since closed.
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Ezell's was made famous when talk show host Oprah Winfrey called it her favorite fried chicken. There are a number of photos of her on the wall of the original restaurant proclaiming her love of the chicken. It is also said she has the chicken flown to her in Chicago when she has a craving.
History
The restaurant started over 30 years ago by Ezell Stephens and Lewis Rudd. In 1978 they talked about opening a restaurant, when Ezell got out of the Coast Guard and Lewis out of the army. After 6 years of night school, they finally got the funding to open in 1984.
However, it is now widely documented that Ezell Stephens had been fired from EFC, with the company pressing charges against Ezell for unauthorized store openings and sharing the trademark secret recipe (as of 9/2010). Currently, the only three locations Ezell Stephens owns are in Everett WA, Lake City Wa and Renton Wa . As of November 2011, Ezell Stephens had changed the name of his three Ezell's locations to Heaven Sent Fried Chicken.
Menu
Besides serving its classic southern fried chicken, Ezell's offers many other favorites such as spicy breaded chicken, baked beans, sweet rolls, potato salad, mashed potatoes, coleslaw, sweet potato pie, and chicken livers.