Tawanda Pirtle (left) with Cordell, son of founders Jack and Orva Pirtle.
Jack Pirtle's Fried Chicken is Memphis.
Their special chicken was created in Memphis by Memphians. Asked to describe their fried chicken, Tawanda Pirtle, whose husband, Cordell, is the son of founders Jack and Orva Pirtle, says, “It would be more like going to my grandmother’s house back when I was a kid in the 1960s. She made a special meal for her family and put a lot of work into it. That’s what Jack Pirtle’s is. We still cook in our kitchen today like you would cook in your kitchen at home, as far as bringing the chicken out, washing it, seasoning it, and flouring it.”
They also use pressure cookers, Tawanda says. “It holds the moisture inside the chicken.”
The Jack Pirtle’s chicken saga began in 1957 when Jack and Orva owned the old Jefferson Cafe at the corner of Jefferson and Third. Lee Cumming, who sold bread to the Pirtles, introduced them to his uncle, the famous Col. Harland Sanders, who was selling his special Kentucky Fried Chicken seasoning to restaurants across the South.
“Mr. Pirtle hit it off with Mr. Sanders,” she says. Jack began using KFC seasoning on his chicken two days a week at the Jefferson Cafe. “It was a big success and people liked it.”
Sanders then took Jack to visit a restaurant in South Dakota that used Kentucky Fried Chicken seasoning. Jack liked what he saw, returned to Memphis, and opened his own restaurant on South Bellevue, calling it “Jack Pirtle’s Featuring Kentucky Fried Chicken.” The restaurant, which is still a Jack Pirtle’s, operated like the South Dakota restaurant. All the chicken used Kentucky Fried Chicken seasoning.
A year later, the Pirtles sold the Jefferson Cafe, which Orva had been running, and concentrated on the booming Jack Pirtle’s Featuring Kentucky Fried Chicken restaurant. It was nicknamed “The Working Man’s Store” because Jack brought complementary fried chicken to construction workers to build up his business. In the early days, the Pirtles used a rubber stamp to put the restaurant’s name on cake boxes.
After he got the first Kentucky Fried Chicken franchise for the state of Tennessee, Jack built a store in Whitehaven, followed by locations on Highland, Thomas, Summer, and Poplar. “Those stores are still open today,” says Tawanda, “except we sold the property on Summer Avenue.”
In 1962, Sanders sold Kentucky Fried Chicken to KFC Corp. e new owners wanted Jack to follow their strict guidelines, but he didn’t want to do that, Tawanda says. “He wanted to do his own thing.”
He let his contracts run out and he and Orva, who also was a home economics teacher, “devised a new seasoning — a new formula and kept testing it and testing it. And that’s when they came up with the Jack Pirtle’s seasoning we have today. They tweaked it a little bit during the years.”
They changed the restaurant’s name to “Jack Pirtle’s Fried Chicken.” The business, which now has eight locations, offers hamburgers, steak sandwiches, and hot dogs in addition to the chicken.
Besides the tasty chicken, what is the secret to their success?
“You’ve got to build your customers,” says Tawanda, “and love your employees even more.”
You’re never too far from a Jack Pirtle’s Fried Chicken. Check your favorite map app to find the location nearest you.
