 | |
| Type | Private |
|---|---|
| Industry | Restaurants |
| Founded | 1949 |
| Headquarters | Villa Park, Illinois, United States |
| Website | brownschicken |
Brown's Chicken & Pasta, also known simply as Brown's Chicken, is a chain of fast food restaurants specializing in fried chicken. It is based in the Chicago metropolitan area.
The chain traces its origins to 1949, when John and Belva Brown opened a restaurant in Bridgeview, Illinois. Brown's expanded to many locations throughout the United States in the 1970s. In the 1980s, pasta was added to the menu and eventually to the name of the company. In the 1990s, a traditional grill named "The Chicago Way" was added to all Brown's restaurants. After 2005, the company contracted their locations to exclusively within the Chicago metropolitan area. Former company president Frank Portillo is the brother of Dick Portillo, founder and former owner of The Portillo Restaurant Group, which was sold to Berkshire Partners in 2014.
On January 8, 1993, the event that would become infamous as the Brown's Chicken massacre occurred at a Palatine, Illinois, branch. Seven people were killed, including both owners and five employees, all of whom were found bound in the walk-in freezer. In 2002, James Degorski and Juan Luna were arrested for the murders. [1] In May 2007, Luna was convicted of his part in the murders and sentenced to life imprisonment. [1] On September 28, 2009, James Degorski was found guilty of the murders. [2] The massacre had an adverse effect on the entire Brown's Chicken chain. Sales at all restaurants dropped by 35 percent within months of the incident, and the company eventually closed 100 restaurants in the Chicago area. [3]
A fast-food restaurant, also known as a quick-service restaurant (QSR) within the industry, is a specific type of restaurant that serves fast-food cuisine and has minimal table service. The food served in fast-food restaurants is typically part of a "meat-sweet diet", offered from a limited menu, cooked in bulk in advance and kept hot, finished and packaged to order, and usually available for take away, though seating may be provided. Fast-food restaurants are typically part of a restaurant chain or franchise operation that provides standardized ingredients and/or partially prepared foods and supplies to each restaurant through controlled supply channels. The term "fast food" was recognized in a dictionary by Merriam–Webster in 1951.
Yum! Brands, Inc., formerly Tricon Global Restaurants, Inc., is an American fast food corporation listed on the Fortune 1000. Yum! operates the brands KFC, Pizza Hut, Taco Bell, and The Habit Burger Grill, except in China, where the brands are operated by a separate company, Yum China. Yum! previously also owned Long John Silver's and A&W Restaurants.
Swiss Chalet is a Canadian chain of casual dining restaurants founded in 1954 in Toronto, Ontario. Swiss Chalet has locations in most Canadian provinces, across Canada, but about 80% are in Ontario and none in Quebec. Swiss Chalet is among the holdings of Recipe Unlimited, which also owns the fast food chain Harvey's. Swiss Chalet and Harvey's franchises share many locations.
Marie Callender's is an American restaurant chain. Its headquarters are in the Marie Callender's Corporate Support Center in Mission Viejo, Orange County, California. As of May 2022, the company has 25 restaurant locations in California, Nevada, and Utah.
Fazoli's is an American fast casual restaurant chain headquartered in Lexington, Kentucky. It was founded in 1988 and is now owned by FAT Brands. As of November 2021, there are 220 Fazoli's located nationwide. The restaurant chain specializes in Italian-American cuisine and dishes.
The Brown's Chicken Massacre was a mass murder that occurred on January 8, 1993 in Palatine, Illinois, when two robbers killed seven employees at a Brown's Chicken fast-food restaurant.
Burger Chef was an American fast-food restaurant chain. It began operating in 1954 in Indianapolis, Indiana, expanded throughout the United States, and at its peak in 1973 had 1,050 locations, including some in Canada. The chain featured several signature items, such as the Big Shef and Super Shef hamburgers.
Red Robin Gourmet Burgers, Inc., more commonly known as Red Robin Gourmet Burgers and Brews or simply Red Robin, is an American chain of casual dining restaurants founded in September 1969 in Seattle, Washington. In 1979, the first franchised Red Robin restaurant was opened in Yakima, Washington. Red Robin's headquarters are in Greenwood Village, Colorado. As of August 2020, the company had over 570 restaurants in operation with 90 being operated as a franchise.
Noodles & Company is an American fast-casual restaurant that offers international and American noodle dishes in addition to soups and salads. Noodles & Company was founded in 1995 by Aaron Kennedy and is headquartered in Broomfield, Colorado. The company went public in 2013 and recorded a $457 million revenue in 2017. In mid-2022, there were 458 Noodles & Company locations across 31 states.
Portillo's Restaurant Group, Inc. is an American fast casual restaurant chain based in the Chicago area that specializes in serving Chicago-style food such as hot dogs, Maxwell Street Polish, and Italian beef. The company was founded by Dick Portillo on April 9, 1963, in Villa Park, Illinois under the name "The Dog House".
Rax Roast Beef is a regional U.S. fast food restaurant chain specializing in roast beef sandwiches. The company has been through many iterations, declaring bankruptcy more than once, rising to as many as 504 locations in 38 U.S. states in the 1980s and falling to fewer than 20 locations on more than one occasion. As of 2022, Rax is based in Ironton, Ohio, and has between five and eight franchisee-owned restaurants still in operation.
Zankou Chicken is a small, family-owned chain of Armenian and Mediterranean fast casual restaurants located in the Los Angeles neighborhood of Little Armenia. The restaurants are especially known for their spit-roasted chicken, shawarma, falafel, tahini, and a "secret" garlic sauce.
Marrybrown Sdn Bhd is a Malaysian-owned multinational chain of quick service restaurants originated in Johor Bahru, Johor, Malaysia. Being one of the largest global halal fast food-establishments, the chain has since expanded to over 500 locations throughout Malaysia and across 15 countries. The restaurant focuses on Malaysian and western dishes.
Mary Brown's Chicken, also known as Mary Brown's, is a Canadian fast food restaurant with approximately 200 locations coast-to-coast across Canada. The chain specializes in fried chicken and fried plant-based chicken substitute dinners, including sandwiches and tenders with side dishes such as coleslaw and potatoes, as well as national specialties such as poutine.
Paul Dennis Reid, Jr., also known as "The Fast Food Killer", was an American serial killer, convicted and sentenced to death for seven murders during three fast-food restaurant robberies in Metropolitan Nashville, Tennessee and Clarksville, Tennessee between the months of February and April 1997. At the time of the murders, Reid lived with roommate Brian Fozzard at a boarding house, and he was on parole from a 1983 conviction in Texas on charges relating to the aggravated armed robbery of a Houston steakhouse. He had served seven years of a 20-year sentence, and was paroled in 1990. Originally from Richland Hills, Texas, a suburb of Fort Worth, Reid went to Nashville to pursue a career as a country music singer.
A fried chicken restaurant is a fast food restaurant, often a chain, that serves (mainly) fried chicken—usually chunks of chicken, battered or breaded and deep-fried.
KFC was founded by Colonel Harland Sanders, an entrepreneur who began selling fried chicken from his roadside restaurant in Corbin, Kentucky, during the Great Depression. Sanders identified the potential of restaurant franchising, and the first "Kentucky Fried Chicken" franchise opened in Salt Lake City, Utah, in 1952. KFC popularized chicken in the fast-food industry, diversifying the market by challenging the established dominance of the hamburger. Branding himself "Colonel Sanders", the founder became a prominent figure of American cultural history, and his image remains widely used in KFC advertising. The company's rapid expansion made it too large for Sanders to manage, so in 1964 he sold the company to a group of investors led by John Y. Brown, Jr. and Jack C. Massey.
Chicken Salad Chick is a fast casual restaurant chain and franchise of chicken salad restaurants based in Auburn, Alabama. To date, the chain consists of over 280 franchise restaurants and stores in 19 different U.S. states.
El Pollo Loco, Inc., is a restaurant chain based in the United States, specializing in Mexican-style grilled chicken. Restaurant service consists of: dine-in, take-out, with some locations offering drive through options. The company is headquartered in Costa Mesa, California, and operates about 500 company-owned and franchised restaurants in the Southwestern United States.
 | This US-based restaurant or restaurant chain article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. |