Everything You Should Know About Kennedy Fried Chicken
In the world of fried chicken, Kennedy Fried Chicken is a place that's been around for decades, and there's a lot to know about it. While you've likely not ever seen it advertised, it holds its own in the chicken world. However, it got its start in an unconventional way, and no two are exactly alike. In these days of cookie-cutter fast-food chains, it's refreshing to find one that's still able to mold itself however it wants.
We've done a deep dive into the origin story of the chain and how it spread to try to uncover why it is the way it is, as the business model is different from what most of us are accustomed to seeing in restaurants that share names. From the lawsuits that have followed the chain to trademark attempts and locational choices, we've revealed some tidbits of information you may not have known about Kennedy Fried Chicken and how it became what it is today. Whether you've enjoyed the chicken and other foods from this restaurant all your life or are just curious to know what Kennedy Fried chicken is all about, we have a lot to share.
It has two conflicting origin stories
There are two different origin stories for the Kennedy Fried Chicken. Those telling the stories neither agree on the timeline nor the founder of the chain.
In one origin story, the chain was started by an Afghani named Taeb Zia in 1972. Zia came to the U.S. from the Soviet Union where he'd been studying engineering. The story goes that, when he arrived in New York, he started working at a restaurant called Kansas Fried Chicken that Horace Bullard had started up in the late 1960s in the Bronx. After three years at Kansas Fried Chicken, Zia hatched a plan to open up his own chicken place, where he'd make the chicken better and cheaper. He supposedly opened the first Kennedy Fried Chicken in Brooklyn in 1975, although some stories have him opening the first one in 1969 instead. He went on to open six total Kennedy locations.
The other origin story out there begins with another Kansas Fried Chicken employee: Abdul Karim. Some who believe Karim to be the original founding father place the starting date for the chain in 1979. However, there aren't as many details related to this origin story.
Kennedy Fried Chicken was supposedly named after President Kennedy
One of the possible Kennedy Fried Chicken founders, Taeb Zia, claims to have named his restaurants after president John F. Kennedy. Unfortunately, Kennedy's life and presidency predates the chicken chain, so he never had a chance to decide if it was among his favorite restaurants. In fact, fried chicken doesn't appear to be among JFK's favorite foods. However, he was a president that the Afghanis tended to respect.
Afghani King Mohammed Zaher and Queen Haomaira visited with Kennedy in Washington, DC in September of 1963, just months before Kennedy's assassination. Kennedy was sympathetic to Afghanistan and had pledged his support to the furtherance of world peace. After the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan in 1979, many Afghanis immigrated to the U.S., and many still felt a warmness toward the positive relationship between the two countries forged under Kennedy. However, the founding father of Kennedy Fried Chicken, Zia, moved to the U.S. before the Soviet invasion.
Of course, it didn't hurt that the name Kennedy Fried Chicken sounded similar to the ever-popular Kentucky Fried Chicken name, just like Kansas Fried Chicken did. However, we'll discuss this point further later in the article.
The chain's growth began among Afghani immigrants
Once Afghani immigrants saw the success Kennedy Fried Chicken was having, they started opening up similar fried chicken places. Noticing a lack of legal claim to the name, they started opening up copycat locations using the Kennedy Fried Chicken name. The U.S. was a land of opportunity, and fried chicken seemed to be a good ticket for success. With no trademark on the name until 2005, nothing was stopping them for decades.
Perhaps if the originator of the brand had had foresight, he could have capitalized on trademarking the name. Although, there's no guarantee those who opened Kennedy Fried Chickens in those early years would have decided to use the name if they had to buy into it. Untrademarked as it was, it allowed Afghani immigrants to latch onto a restaurant scheme with name recognition both from the other similarly-named restaurants as well as Kentucky Fried Chicken, which it was blatantly copying.
Many Afghani immigrants found employment at a Kennedy chicken place after arriving in New York after the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. While it wasn't a traditional pyramid scheme, Afghani immigrants often used their time spent working in another Kennedy Chicken location as a springboard to open their own. They'd have access to all the recipes and learn all the ins and outs of how a Kennedy location worked and then just start their own. Although some have gone on to create other great fried chicken restaurants like Crown Fried Chicken.
The business model is not that of a franchise
If you've never heard of Kennedy Fried Chicken, it's likely because there's not one near you or just the fact that it doesn't have a central office to do formal advertising for the chain. In fact, even some definitions of a "chain restaurant" doesn't quite fit Kennedy since there's no corporate ownership nor does it have the same menu for all its restaurants (more about that later). There's also not a franchise system in place. Basically, various chicken restaurant entrepreneurs took the concept and name and ran with it. So, owners own and operate either one location or several locations independent from any central figurehead.
There's no special requirement to own a Kennedy location, no rules to follow, and nobody collecting franchise fees. So, you shouldn't expect any sort of uniformity between one location you visit and the next. There doesn't even seem to be a special recipe for the chicken, although ones with the same owners will likely taste the same, and those owners who were once employees often brought over recipes from one location to another. Plus, many in the same area often get their supplies from the same vendors.
Kentucky Fried Chicken has sued various owners for trademark infringement
The name Kennedy Fried Chicken not only shortens to KFC like the famous Kentucky Fried Chicken, but the first locations used red and white for their decor and logo, which made it easy for customers to confuse the two. With the colors and name being close, Kentucky Fried Chicken won a trademark infringement lawsuit against the imposter chicken restaurant chain in 1990 in New York federal court. Going trademark alone, KFC didn't want the restaurants to use any trade dress elements (elements that provide the overall image for the restaurant) that could cause someone to confuse a Kennedy for a Kentucky Fried Chicken.
By extending their lawsuits to trade dress, it meant that KFC didn't want Kennedy locations to look like a KFC or have packaging that was similar to KFC. The restaurants' color scheme mattered, too. Thus, many Kennedy owners made changes to their restaurants to prevent future KFC lawsuits. For example, in the 1990s, Abdul Haye changed the color scheme in his locations from red and white (like KFC's colors) to blue and white.
There have been a variety of successful and failed trademarks related to the brand
Several people have attempted and failed to get trademarks on everything from the Kennedy Fried Chicken name to the logo and the design of the packaging. However, ownership of name or logo trademarks doesn't give anyone ownership over the restaurants as a whole.
It took years for anyone to get ownership of the Kennedy Fried Chicken name. Abdul Karim made the first failed Kennedy Fried Chicken trademark attempt in 1992. However, Abdul Haye was the first person to successfully get a trademark for the Kennedy Fried Chicken name in 2005. The trademark on the name isn't dependent on being in any specific font; it's just for the name. Despite owning a trademark on the name, Haye only owns five Kennedy Fried Chicken locations. Interestingly, Haye's trademark application only claims that the Kennedy Fried Chicken name was in use at least as early as August 1, 1994, which doesn't acknowledge any history of the chain's earlier existence.
There have still been some failed and successful trademark attempts related to Kennedy Fried Chicken since Haye got the rights to the name. In 2008, Afghan Food & Paper unsuccessfully tried to get a trademark for a Kennedy Fried Chicken food box with the name on it. However, it seems that Li Yuan Xing got a trademark on a 98K 2018 1214 Kennedy Fried Chicken logo in 2022, despite Haye owning the rights to the Kennedy Fried Chicken name.
There's disagreement over who has rights to the Kennedy Fried Chicken name
With Abdul Haye clenching ownership of the Kennedy Fried Chicken name since 2005, he started trying to get franchise fees in 2011 from hundreds of other restaurants around the country using the name. However, all the places that had been making chicken under the name for years had zero interest in paying some random person they'd never heard of a fee after having their own restaurant for years before.
Haye began his chicken career working for such a location in Queens for seven months before starting his own Kennedy-labeled restaurant. While Haye doesn't deny that he didn't start the brand, he feels like his ownership of the trademark gives him certain ownership rights to the brand. While he legally owns the name, it hasn't stopped other owners from continuing to use it without any fealty to Haye. Sure, he could lodge endless lawsuits, but who has the time, money, and energy for that?
There's a lack of physical uniformity between the different locations
The differences between one Kennedy Fried Chicken and the next mean that you shouldn't have any specific expectations when you walk in the door. With no central ownership or rule book, an owner can do anything they want from logos to decor.
Because of the lawsuits with Kentucky Fried Chicken in the past, you're not so likely to find locations that have a red and white theme, but when locations changed their colors, they didn't consult each other, with some opting for blue and white and others going with green or other colors. With Afghan Food & Paper being unsuccessful in trademarking a box for locations to use hold chicken, there's no universal uniformity in packaging either. It's every restaurant from themselves from decor to packaging, uniforms, and even logos. We especially like the inventive logo we've seen that looks like a Kennedy half dollar coin with JFK turned into a chicken.
The interior of the establishment may not always be very fancy either, as many tend to be hole-in-the-wall chicken places with just a few tables or none at all. There may not be a public restroom either. Customers are visiting for chicken, not ambiance for sure. Honestly, some of the best places to eat are ones that worry more about getting their food right than the visuals of the dining experience.
Locations have wildly different menus
Beyond fried chicken, there's no telling what you'll find on a Kennedy Fried Chicken menu. With nobody regulating what you can and can't sell, individual owners have branched out into other menu items they hope their customers will enjoy.
All locations serve fried chicken, but some sell it in a box with sides. Plus, there are other chicken items you'll find, including chicken wings of all kinds, chicken sandwiches, chicken tenders, chicken nuggets, and popcorn chicken.
However, the menus don't stop at chicken. You might see a variety of sandwiches, like hamburgers, fish sandwiches, Philly cheese steaks, gyros, heroes, BBQ sandwiches, and even wraps. There are even places that serve dinners of various types of meat — chicken, lamb, kabab, fish, and shrimp – over rice and sometimes with a salad or sides. We've also seen fried seafood, pizza, and salads on some menus. There are lots of great side dishes for fried chicken, and Kennedy has plenty of them. Some are fried, like French fries, onion rings, potato wedges, and mozzarella sticks. Some that aren't fried include macaroni and cheese, mashed potatoes, macaroni salad, and coleslaw. Plus, we've seen all sorts of desserts, including pies, banana pudding, cake, cheese cake, ice cream, and more. However, we haven't found any making Afghani dishes like bolani.
You can find them in the Eastern part of the U.S. and two other countries
Kennedy Fried Chicken has spread like wildfire in the Northeast portion of the U.S. and into other countries. By 2004, there were 50 locations in New York City. Plus, it had spread into three other states: Connecticut, Maryland, and Massachusetts. Today, there are hundreds of locations. You'll also find that not every Kennedy location is named Kennedy Fried Chicken. Some are simply Kennedy Chicken or something like Kennedy Pizza and Chicken, Halal Kennedy Fried Chicken, or Kennedy Chicken and Grill, which helps to ward off any trademark disagreements.
Despite not being connected by anything but a name and the fact that they serve fried chicken, there is a website that has attempted to collect as many Kennedy locations as possible. According to the restaurant directory, the majority of the locations are in the northern part of the East Coast (or slightly inland), including Connecticut, Delaware, Maryland, Massachusetts, New York, and Pennsylvania. However, there are also locations further South in Georgia. We've also seen them in Florida, Tennessee, and Chicago as well.
The Kennedy craze has also crossed borders and oceans, landing in both Canada and England. Montéal, Canada, has a Kennedy Poulet Frit & Pizza. Meanwhile, you can find a plain old Kennedy Chicken making a go of it in Barking, a town outside of London, England.
It has a tendency to be located in sketchy neighborhoods
If you're looking for a Kennedy's Fried Chicken, you're going to have to do a search deeper into the belly of a city to find it. It's probably not going to be on the main strip but probably in a sketchier, less-known neighborhood.
If you're wanting to try a Kennedy chicken location, you'll want to be aware of your surroundings. Likely because of cheaper lease agreements, you'll find many in sketchier neighborhoods. If the neighborhood is especially dangerous, you may even find bulletproof glass between you and your favorite chicken-monger. So, you might want to check local reviews to see if the quality of the chicken is worth any danger that visiting Kennedy locations in some neighborhoods might impose.
Granted, not all locations are in sketchy neighborhoods or have an aura of danger. For example, there's one on Main and Northern Boulevard in Flushing, Queens, New York, that's quite nice. So, don't let the reputation of some of the sketchier ones prevent you from trying them or eating indoors. Some, like the one in Madison, Tennessee, are known for their friendly atmospheres, which makes sense when you think about how many are family owned.
Some locations seem to attract crime
Being in sketchy neighborhoods means that some Kennedy Fried Chicken locations are not always the safest places to eat. If your nearest location has made recent crime news headlines, you might want to rethink eating inside – assuming there actually is any seating at all. Granted, this statement doesn't apply to all locations, but there are some that are notorious for crime. If the chicken is being served behind bullet-proof glass, that's certainly a hint, but your local news source might offer more information.
A quick look through the news will tell you what you need to know about some locations. For example, there's one that was investigated as an active drug deal site. Another was robbed at gunpoint in an area plagued with fast-food robberies.
Although, some locations have done a good job making themselves over as well. In 2017, the city of Binghamton, New York, closed one down because it had accumulated too many points for crimes committed on the property over a specific period of time. Being open late at night and into the wee morning hours, it attracted a rougher crowd that kept the neighbors up with their noise. After a previous lockdown, they'd added no-loitering signs and a camera, but that didn't seem to work. However, it seems that, after the city shut the location in 2017, they made some positive changes (including no longer selling cigarettes) and improved their reputation with the public.