Learn more about the rich, decades-long history of popular Price’s Chicken Coop
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Price’s Chicken Coop is closing
The beloved, nearly 60-year-old restaurant in South End is closing its doors this Saturday.
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Learn more about the rich, decades-long history of popular Price’s Chicken Coop
Brothers Talmadge and Pat Price introduced Charlotte residents to their secret family recipe for fried chicken in 1962, out of their humble Camden Road take-out joint that boldly embraced all customers.
”We serve two kinds of people — Ladies and Gentleman,” read a policy posted on the wall of the restaurant, which in recent years weathered the dizzying pace of growth and development in South End.
And that’s how Price’s Chicken Coop stayed.
”Old and young, Black and white, blue-collar and white-collar workers stand in lines out the door for takeout fried chicken,” the Observer reported in March 2006. “Customers often dine on the curb, or in the car, because they just can’t wait to get home with it.”
The restaurant was so popular, according to a 2013 Observer story, that Talmadge Price only paid for advertising the very first month. The cost was just $90.
Thursday’s news of Price’s imminent closure quickly rocketed across Charlotte.
Saturday is closing day, the last chance to savor the extra crispy chicken that Price’s marinates overnight and fries up in peanut oil, or the gizzards, livers, fish and shrimp.
Lots of memories
As people clamor for their last fix, lining up on the sidewalk and bemoaning the loss of another storied Charlotte institution, here are some memories from the Coop.
▪ In 2001, owner Steven Price banned cell phone use for customers placing their orders. “It’s rude and inconsiderate, basically,” the Observer had reported.
▪ Director Peter Farrelly paused production of “Shallow Hal” — with scenes shot in Freedom Park — for about 45 minutes in spring 2001, all so the crew could taste the fried chicken. The late T.C. Carey, of WFNZ, made a point of introducing Farrelly and his co-director brother Bobby to Price’s. “(The chicken) was like heroin to them,” Carey had said.
▪ A Gourmet magazine review in 2008 described Price’s with this praise: “It’s the best in North Carolina, maybe the best in the South —and therefore, the best anywhere.”
▪ Comedian Jay Leno visited Price’s in May 2015. The restaurant, in a Facebook post, included pictures of Leno waiting inside the restaurant and then enjoying his food across the street near the Blue Line. Leno, who had performed at the Belk Theater the day before, ordered a wing dinner, a white-meat dinner and several sweet teas, the Observer reported at the time.
▪ “That’s my joint,” actor and singer Lenny Kravitz said of Price’s, during a 2012 interview with the Observer. He played Katniss Everdeen’s stylist in “The Hunger Games,” which was filmed in Charlotte and other parts of North Carolina. Though he tries to eat “very healthy and organic,” Kravitz said he has to “get country every now and again.”
▪ When Talmadge Price died in 2013 at age 92, hundreds attended his funeral at Pritchard Memorial Baptist Church.
▪ Price’s was a favorite for former Panthers quarterback Cam Newton, especially while entertaining teammates at his uptown home.
This story was originally published June 17, 2021 at 3:06 PM.