Knott's Berry Farm is celebrating the ninetieth anniversary of Mrs. Knott's Chicken Dinner Restaurant with a series of chicken feasts running from Memorial Day weekend through New Year's Day.
“We just stuck with what Cordelia Knott did because that's what makes us unique,” said Melissa Laviano, director of Knott's Marketplace. “We haven't changed the recipe. None of it has changed. It's all the same. It's the same recipe that we've kept the whole time.”
To make ends meet in the course of the Great Depression, Cordelia Knott served her now famous country fried chicken for the primary time on the family's roadside fruit and vegetable market on June 13, 1934.
Knott's Berry Place's market sold fruit and plants, together with a small tea room where Cordelia offered sandwiches and hot cross buns, in addition to homemade cakes and jams made out of the boysenberries typical of the family farm.
While the pies and jams proved popular, it was the 65-cent chicken dishes served on Cordelia's wedding dishes that put Knott's Berry Place on the map and caused Depression-era guests to flock to the farm.
Cordelia's first chicken dishes were served with salad, a side of rhubarb, mashed potatoes with gravy, biscuits, and a slice of berry pie.
As the news spread, customers soon found themselves waiting in line for up to a few hours to get a plate.
Cordelia's Tea Room quickly grew from 20 to 40 after which to 70 seats before expanding right into a full-fledged restaurant with seating for 350.
But the queues didn't get any shorter. The crowds continued to stream in.
These long lines prompted Walter Knott to invent novelties and amusement parks to entertain the masses while they waited for his wife's chicken.
Walter built a rock garden with a waterfall after which a duplicate of George Washington's fireplace at Mount Vernon. Then he began pondering larger.
In 1940, construction began on what would later grow to be the ghost town of Calico, which still forms the guts of Knott's Berry Farm today.
Walter bought parts of old buildings from the Wild West and built a sheriff's office, a barber shop and a hotel. Actors were hired to populate the synthetic western town and entertain the guests.
Soon, people were coming for each Walter's Ghost Town and Cordelia's Chicken. A public address system was installed to call guests back to the restaurant when it was time for his or her reservation.
In the Fifties, the Calico Saloon, Ghost Town & Calico Railroad, and the Bird Cage Theater were added to entertain the growing restaurant crowds. In the Sixties, the primary true theme park attractions were introduced, the Calico Mine Ride and the Timber Mountain Log Ride.
In 1968, Knott's Berry Farm was fenced off and admission to the brand new theme park was charged at one dollar. What began as a roadside berry stand and chicken restaurant now attracts 3.9 million visitors annually to certainly one of the most important theme parks within the country with over 40 rides and shows.
In the approaching months, Knott's will grow to be a flagship park in a $8 billion merger that might mix Cedar Fair and Six Flags into one North American amusement park juggernaut.
And to think that it began with a 65-cent chicken dinner that Cordelia Knott got here up with to make ends meet in the course of the Great Depression.
Today, Mrs. Knott's Chicken Dinner Restaurant serves 2,500 fried chickens on a busy weekend and as much as 2 million kilos of chicken a 12 months. The eatery bills itself because the world's largest full-service chicken restaurant in a single location, with seating for nearly 900 people.
“We have customers who have been coming here for 40 or 50 years,” Laviano said during an interview on the restaurant. “I love it when they say, 'It tastes like it did when I came here with my great-grandmother or when my parents brought me here.' Now they're bringing the next generation of their family and they want the same taste. You may not remember what the place looked like, but you remember what the chicken tasted like or how it made you feel.”
Apparently chicken dishes don't cost 65 cents anymore.
Today, Mrs. Knott's chicken lunch is $20 for 2 pieces with mashed potatoes and gravy, biscuits, and a side that also features a rhubarb option. Dinner consists of 4 pieces of chicken and a slice of pie and costs $26.50.
After 90 years, there's greater than just chicken on the menu. Mrs. Knott's also offers other burgers, pasta, fish, grilled pork and steaks – but 90% of shoppers still order chicken.
You can get your chicken fried, roasted, with waffles or dumplings, as tenders, wings or on a slider, in a pot pie and whilst plant-based chik'n.
“You have to keep up with trends and fashions if you want to continue to have guests coming and coming back,” Laviano said.
The long queues of the past were replaced in 2016 by a reservation system with a virtual queue that will be as much as two hours long on busy weekends.
“Guests come in and ask, 'Where's the line?'” Laviano said. “I say, 'Well, now it's virtual.' We'll put you on our waitlist and contact you via text message.”
The restaurant's celebrity fans include Nicolas Cage, Sarah Michelle Gellar, Freddie Prinze Jr., Mel Gibson and Tiffany Haddish.
“No Doubt” singer Gwen Stefani has been visiting Mrs. Knott’s restaurant for years – and is now bringing her husband Blake Shelton to the feast.
In the Nineties, the park experimented with Mrs. Knott's Restaurant and Bakery locations in Irvine, Rancho Cucamonga and Moreno Valley – but they’re all now closed.
There was a couple of places throughout the theme park where you may fry chicken, but now you will have to go to CDR if you wish to satisfy that craving.
Through the top of 2024, the restaurant just outside the theme park gates will offer a Berry Family Breakfast in the course of the summer, a Midnight Breakfast Buffet during Knott's Scary Farm, Cordelia's Tea Party during Thanksgiving season, and Santa's Breakfast during Knott's Merry Farm.
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