Livers and gizzards are popular alternatives to legs, breasts, thighs, and wings, the livers ludicrously rich inside their crisp-fried crust, the gizzards a little more chewy and yet surprisingly tender. “Do you know what gizzards are?” Andrew Price asks, before explaining that they are a strong muscle above the intestine that is part of the digestive tract and that if they aren’t parboiled before frying, they are way too chewy.
Early in the 1960s, when Steven’s father, Talmadge Price, created the Coop from the family’s wholesale chicken market, there were even more items available, but over the years it has become a nearly single-purpose business, which the cousins know inside out. For example, they told us that they sell more white meat at the beginning of each month because that is when customers have their paychecks and feel less restrained about spending. By the third week, money gets scarce and bills come due and dark meat sells better. As for the secret of the chicken’s uniform goodness, Steven explained that it isn’t just a matter of dropping meat in the fryer for a set period of time. “Chickens vary in size and mass. Our cook handles every piece that goes into the oil and can feel exactly what it requires.”
Old-time Charlotteans remember the Chicken Coop’s predecessor, the Dilworth Market, opened by Steven and Andrew’s grandfather in the 1930s. He had been a chicken man well before that, raising broilers that he sold to a trucker who brought them into town to sell. When Steven’s father took over the market, it became known as the place to go to pick out the live bird you wanted for supper. “You pointed to it, and a few minutes later you would be walking out of the store with that chicken wrapped in paper, ready to cook,” Steven says. “Dad was fast with a knife.”
Talmadge Price decided to start cooking chickens to feed workers from a nearby warehouse who told him that they had no place to get something to eat. They wanted food that was substantial but demanded no utensils, and they needed it quickly so they could take it back to their workplace and be finished with lunch in the 30 minutes they were allotted.
Their needs are precisely what defined the way Price’s Chicken Coop operates today. It is quick and it is blue-collar cheap, meals come hot from the fry kettle, and customers are expected to supply their own place to eat. There are no daily specials, the menu never changes, and the fried chicken is exactly the same every day: absolutely perfect.
Address Book
Price’s Chicken Coop
1614 Camden Rd., Charlotte, NC
(704-333-9866)
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