Following a busy lunch rush Wednesday afternoon at Food Giant on Alabama Street, a manageable line of four shoppers forms at the counter of the store’s deli.
The shoppers are waiting for their chance to select from a fresh mound of fried chicken showcased in the counter window.
This wasn’t the case earlier this month, when the store had to temporarily close the deli’s kitchen after two fires in 12 days rendered it unable to make any fried chicken.
“All of my workers, we all pulled together,” deli manager Bobby Hill told The Dispatch. “… We did what we could to still try to keep the customers satisfied and to serve them the best way we could until we (could) get back to full operation.”
The closing of the kitchen left a number of the deli’s regulars concerned about when they would be able to get the store’s fried chicken for their events again, Hill said.
“We had a couple issues where people had ordered chicken for funerals and whatnot,” Brice said. “It was inconvenient, but it’s just one of those deals.”
The first fire was caused by an equipment issue that damaged one of the kitchen’s fryers on Aug. 19. After fixing that equipment, bad luck struck again on Aug. 30 when a gas line was opened while cleaning in the kitchen, sparking the second fire.
“Three fryers were damaged, and we went ahead and replaced the stove that’s back there as well,” store manager Dan Brice said.
No one was injured in the two fires, Columbus Fire and Rescue Fire Marshall Michael Walker told The Dispatch on Wednesday. CFR is providing lessons in fire safety and fire extinguisher use to store employees in case of any future fires at the store, he said.
“We have offered them some training in fire extinguisher use also that our education officer will be getting with them and having some training on how to properly use a fire extinguisher,” Walker said.
A chicken tradition
While the kitchen was down, Hill implemented a similar solution as he did about four years ago, when the kitchen had to close for renovations. He took the chicken stocked for that week, smoked it outside the store and offered it at the deli counter.
The impromptu solution could become a more permanent fixture at the store going forward, Hill said.
“I was selling the smoked chicken (for) the same price as the fried,” Hill said. “… That stayed us afloat for a week. So since we’re back on the fried, and now they know that we’ve got it in house, they’re still asking about the smoked. I might reconsider doing it.”
However, until that decision is made the fried chicken, the deli’s most popular offering, is back on the menu.
Hill said he has a number of regulars, ranging from churches to police officers, that stop by during lunch and dinner time for the chicken.
The deli typically sells about 3,800 pieces of chicken to anywhere from 1,500 to 2,000 people a day with weekends sometimes being even busier, Hill said.
“A lot of people when they get out of church, a lot of them come and get plates of chicken. It’s like a tradition here,” Hill said. “… Since football season kicked off, I’m having more foot traffic on Saturdays now because a lot of people come and get chicken for the games and things of that nature.”
With the equipment replaced and the kitchen back up and running, Food Giant is back to selling its fried chicken, bringing back the deli’s usual line of customers.
“It always brings the customer back,” Hill said. “… They can ride past all these other chicken places, they’re gonna stop here first. So that’s the way I see how my chicken is as far as (impacting) the community.”
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Quality, in-depth journalism is essential to a healthy community. The Dispatch brings you the most complete reporting and insightful commentary in the Golden Triangle, but we need your help to continue our efforts. In the past week, our reporters have posted 34 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community.
