By Roger McKinney
rmckinney@joplinglobe.com
The fried chicken restaurants in Crawford County on Friday were designated one of the Eight Wonders of Kansas Cuisine.
The promotion is sponsored by the Kansas Sampler Foundation. The winners were determined by mail-in and online voting.
Six fried-chicken restaurants in Crawford County were included as a single entry in the competition. They are: Chicken Annie’s Original, rural Pittsburg; Chicken Mary’s, rural Pittsburg; Gebhardt’s Chicken and Dinners, Mulberry; Barto’s Idle Hour, Frontenac; Chicken Annie’s Girard; and Pichler’s Chicken Annie’s, rural Pittsburg.
Josie’s Ristorante in Scammon was one of 24 finalists in the promotion, but was not selected as one of the top eight.
The other winners were Bobo’s Drive In, Topeka; Brookville Hotel, Abilene; Cozy Inn, Salina; Free State Brewing Co., Lawrence; Guy & Mae’s Tavern, Williamsburg; Hays House, Council Grove; and Wheatfields Bakery Cafe, Lawrence.
“Crawford County fried chicken consists of six fried-chicken restaurants, and as a group have made Crawford County legendary for fried chicken dating back to the 1930s,” is how the promotion describes the entry.
“It’s a pretty good deal,” said Larry Zerngast, owner of Chicken Mary’s. “It’s quite a deal. The other restaurants, they do a good job, too.”
Zerngast is the grandson of Mary Zerngast, Chicken Mary, who died in 1980. She started the restaurant in 1943 adjacent to the original Chicken Annie’s restaurant in the Yale community, northeast of Pittsburg.
Chicken Annie was Anne Pichler, who opened her restaurant in 1934. Both Mary Zerngast and Anne Pichler started the fried-chicken restaurants out of their homes to earn money when their miner husbands could no longer work in the mines.
Larry Zerngast said the media over the decades has tried to create the appearance of feuds among the chicken restaurants, and the families who run them, but there were no real feuds.
“Sorry,” he said about the lack of conflict. He added, however, that sometimes hard feelings did exist among some of the old-timers, but that is far in the past.
Author Calvin Trillin wrote of trying to uncover a feud between the two restaurants in the March 8, 1982, issue of The New Yorker magazine, titled “Fried-Chicken War.”
“I suppose I romanticized the fried-chicken war of Crawford County a bit,” Trillin’s piece began. “When it comes to fried chicken, I often get carried away.”
Lynette Forth is a manager at Pichler’s Chicken Annie’s, south of Pittsburg.
“It is a great honor,” Forth said. “It’s great that we can be known for something. For such a small area to have so many chicken restaurants — it’s a wonder.”
Forth, who is related to the Pichlers, also said reports of feuds among the restaurants have been overblown.
“We all have our own customers,” Forth said. “Everyone has their favorites. They’re all good businesses. We’re happy for each other.”
Other wonders
In a previous Kansas Sampler Foundation promotion, Big Brutus in West Mineral and Frontenac Bakery were named among the Eight Wonders of Kansas Commerce. Future promotions will involve customs, geography, history and people.
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