Many places boast a unique connection to fried chicken. Kentucky has a fast food chicken chain restaurant named after it while the term “Nashville chicken” is used to describe a whole type of fried chicken. Perhaps even more impressively, South Korea created a style of fried chicken very different to its American counterpart. But, two lesser-known American cities share the honor of being the true fried chicken capitals of the world: Barberton, Ohio and Gordonsville, Virginia. What’s more, they came to earn this distinction based on entirely different culinary traditions.
Barberton fried chicken traces its roots back to Serbia where Smiljka and Manojlo Topalsky, two Serbian immigrants, were born. The two of them met in Barberton and married in 1925 not knowing that they were less than a decade away from changing the region’s culinary landscape forever. The Great Depression hit them hard, leaving them with only their family farmhouse. So, the couple started a restaurant called Belgrade Gardens in their home. While the restaurant enjoyed modest success, it wasn’t until a patron told them to serve a traditional Serbian dish that business really took off.
The dish is called pohovana piletina, and it spread like wildfire around the Serbian-heavy city of Barberton. It’s prepared by brining the chicken, egg washing and breading it before allowing it to rest overnight. The chicken is fried in pork lard (which is different to lardo) prior to serving. Smiljka and Manojlo opened their restaurant in 1933, and it is still serving fried chicken to this day.
Gordonsville’s journey to fried chicken fame
Gordonsville, Virginia’s journey to becoming a beacon of fried chicken excellence was very different from Barberton’s. While fried chicken may be Scottish in origin, it has become synonymous with American cuisine, and Gordonsville is a big part of why that is.
Gordonsville has been known as the fried chicken capital of the world since the latter half of the 1800s thanks (in part) to its location at the junction of two major train lines. Produce would come in from the Virginian countryside to be loaded onto the trains and shipped north. However, there wasn’t just cargo on these trains but passengers too. Entrepreneurial African American women soon began selling fried chicken, as well as dishes like strawberries and cream, pies, and fried ham and egg sandwiches, to these travelers both at the train station and around the Exchange Hotel. As word spread, people began deliberately journeying through Gordonsville to try some of this delicious chicken. Fried chicken allowed these women to provide for their families, buy houses, and establish a long-lasting culinary tradition. To this day, Gordonsville holds a yearly fried chicken festival and contest which draws crowds of visitors.
