Kansas Visitor's Guide 2007/2008 - (Page 9) PHOTOGRAPHS, CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT: MICHAEL C. SNELL (2), BOB STEFKO (2) Ch ick en current location. A culinary feud began festering between Mary and Annie. www.TravelKS.com For more information, turn to the Trip Planner beginning on page 84. w w w. T r a v e l K S . c o m M ar y’ s IN 1934, ANNIE PICHLER FACED A CRISIS. Her husband, Charlie, had been maimed in a mining accident in one of the (now abandoned) coal mines just north of Pittsburg in southeastern Kansas. How could she support a family of five? Annie started selling veal-cutlet and ham sandwiches to hungry miners. Soon, she was cooking fried-chicken Mary dinners in her home on weekends. The kids helped her raise and died in slaughter chickens. The business thrived, and Annie became 1980, and, known far and wide as Chicken Annie. It wasn’t long before like Annie, her she expanded from her kitchen into a restaurant. She children guard her retired in 1961, but the restaurant still is in the family. chicken legacy. About a decade after Annie started her business, Today, both Mary Zerngast confronted a similar catastrophe: restaurants, built in the Her husband, Joe, also a miner, developed a 1970s, tempt diners with heart condition. Mary followed in Annie’s distinctive chicken-themed road footsteps and signs. The fare at each is uncannily opened her similar, from the star attraction down own to side-dish options that reflect the area’s immigrant heritage, including German- or Italian-style potato salad, coleslaw and spaghetti. At both restaurants, the chicken itself is deep-fried to bronzed perfection. Not that the similarities matter. In southeastern Kansas, you’re either a Chicken Annie’s or a Chicken Mary’s fan. Five thousand diners find their way to these places most every weekend, choosing sides in the ultimate poultry brouhaha. If you want to avoid taking sides, or if you’re simply a romantic at heart, head down the road to the southern edge of Pittsburg. In 1965, love snapped the wishbone of resentment between the rival clans when Chicken Mary’s granddaughter, Donna Zerngast, married Chicken Annie’s grandson, Anthony Pichler. successful fried-chicken enterprise The couple and their children own and operate Pichler’s in the same rural neighborhood. Chicken Annie, where, happily, the chicken and the sides Mary soon set up shop in a taste a whole lot like Annie’s — and Mary’s. spot near the restaurant’s Chicken feed go to the web Ch ick en An ni e’s 9 http://www.TravelKS.com http://www.TravelKS.com
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