Summer road trippers visiting southeast Kansas might notice a curious sight: Two billboards for similarly named fried chicken restaurants that are nearly next door to each other.
Chicken Mary’s and Chicken Annie’s have been staples in Pittsburg for more than 80 years. They share a friendly rivalry and a connection to the now-defunct coal mining industry. The women started both restaurants after turning to cooking to support their families during a time when they had few other options.
Donna Lipoglav is the owner of Chicken Annie's. She's also the granddaughter of Chicken Annie's founder, Annie Pichler, who started in 1933 when this area had a booming coal mining industry.
"My grandfather was in a mine accident and lost his leg and couldn't work anymore," Lipoglav said. "So what she started doing was selling chicken dinners out of her house to the local miners."
Less than a stone's throw away is Chicken Mary's, which had similar origins nearly 10 years later, in 1942. Mary Zerngast's husband, Joe, had a heart attack while working in the coal mines, as Lana Brooks explains. She was a manager at Chicken Mary's for 40 years.
"Back in the day, women didn't work, so the only thing they knew was housekeeping and cooking,” Brooks said. "She thought she did a pretty good chicken, so she started serving the miners and their families out of her house, serving fried chicken."
Brooks started as a server and eventually worked her way up. She got the job because her mom wouldn't buy her a pair of crushed velvet pants.
"So I went and got a job," Brooks said. "She didn't think I'd get one that quick. And I ended up buying a crushed velvet pair of pants."
There have been rumors swirling around about the two restaurants for decades. The first one is that sisters founded them.
But really, they were just two women who turned to cooking for money after their husbands had health problems or accidents in the mining industry and could no longer work. And the two women happened to live close to each other.
Lipoglav said she still hears a rumor at Chicken Annie's that the two restaurants came from a family squabble.
"Everybody thinks they're sisters and they had a fight," Lipoglav said.
Another rumor is that they're heated rivals, which would make sense considering you can literally see both restaurants at the same time. But that rumor was dramatized and bolstered by a 2010 feature on the Travel Network show Food Wars. It was the third episode in the show’s first and only season.
It portrayed a dramatic version of the rivalry — complete with two chicken mascots wrestling with chicken clucks in the background. It featured two teams with "Team Chicken Mary's” or "Team Chicken Mary's" posters meeting in the middle like rival sports teams.
A blindfolded taste test judged each restaurant's chicken legs. Chicken Mary's was crowned the winner, but Brooks said both restaurants won that day. And frankly, comparing the two restaurants helps drive sales.
She said people still come in and get chicken legs from each restaurant to do their own competition.
The portrayal on the show is not necessarily the reality. Brooks said there hasn't been a real rivalry for years and that it is now more of a friendly competition.
"It made a lot of publicity out there,” she said. “We'll still have people that will come, and they'll get a couple of chicken legs from here and run down the street and get a couple there and have their own little competition."
Both Brooks and Lipoglav said their favorite part of their job is the customers.
"I can't tell you how many times I get thanked for still being here. And you just get a lot of really good relationships, both workers and customers," Lipoglav said.
As people pick up their to-go chicken dinners on a Tuesday night at Chicken Mary's, two women sit in a booth, enjoying their meals. One of the women, Lisa Grochowski, just moved to the area. She sings the praises of the chicken and the onion rings. She likes that they're thin and easy to eat.
"Some places you get onion rings, you're biting and biting and biting,” Grochowski said. “The chicken is so moist and fresh. I mean, it is just so good."
Since its establishment over 90 years ago, Chicken Annie's has branched out in Girard. Chicken Mary's used to have other locations in the area.
But the heart and the charm of the two chicken restaurants remains here on their chicken-focused road in southeast Kansas.
Rachel Schnelle reports on Missouri and Kansas issues for KRPS.
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