Rooster Express, Part 6

Longtime readers may remember that when Dave and I first moved to London in 2011, I was photographically infatuated by the rich variety of fried chicken restaurants. (Examples here, here, here, here and here.) These restaurants always have red and/or blue signage -- it's apparently an unspoken industry rule -- and their names often refer back to the southern USA.

Here's a good example with an unusually cumbersome name that I came across Sunday in Camden. I wonder if they had to pay by the letter for that sign?

And I wonder how "new" Tennesseeland differs from "old" Tennesseeland? Was there even an "old" Tennesseeland? Questions to ponder.

Anyway, what can I say about yesterday. It was Monday, and I was back at work. It may not seem like it but we're already on the downslope of the school year! (That's what I keep telling myself, anyway.)

I've tried to write a politically-themed post several times but I just don't have it in me. It brings me down and I know it would bring you down, too. Rest assured I'm thinking about it all, worrying about the stability of the American government and cringing every time I open The New York Times web site.

I'm pretty sure voters in the real Tennesseeland love Donald Trump, though.

Rooster Express, Part 5

I've already noted several times (here, here, here and here) the amusing names and apparently mandatory red-white-and-blue color scheme of chicken joints in London.

These two, which I came across last week in Shepherd's Bush, carry the added benefit of being named after states.

They're not the first state-named chicken joints I've found -- you may remember Carolina Chicken and New Jersey Chicken from those previous posts. I suppose fried chicken is an American invention -- isn't it?

Because I know this is a topic of burning interest to all of you, here are a few more entertaining chicken facades I've encountered over the past several months:

You've got to love Dixy Chicken -- complete with novel spelling.

I wonder how Dallas Chicken differs from Texas Chicken?

These guys abandoned American references and went instead with the name of the local neighborhood.

And this place just looks scary. I'd run!

Rooster Express, Part 4

Just another episode in my apparently endless quest to document the fast-food chicken restaurants of London! I found this one in Islington on Saturday. It's like the "Blade Runner" chicken restaurant -- very techie and minimalist. The logo looks like a computer cursor, and appears to include an apostrophe s, which suggests ownership. Maybe the owner, like The Artist Formerly Known as Prince, changed his name to a symbol?*


And then there's New Jersey Fried Chicken, also in Islington. What's not to love, with that jaunty chicken giving us an enthusiastic Jersey-style thumbs-up? (Never mind that chickens don't have thumbs.)

For previous chicken restaurant documentation, click here, here and here.

*For the record, Prince went back to using his name in 2000!

Rooster Express, part 3

I've found a few more examples of fast-food chicken restaurants with the apparently customary red, white and sometimes blue signage. They really are all over London.




I've also belatedly noticed that these restaurants are almost always located immediately adjacent to a bus stop. Pretty brilliant marketing, I guess, if you want the hungry after-work crowd.

(See also part 1 and part 2.)

Rooster Express, part 2

Here's an addendum to my recent post about ubiquitous fast-food chicken restaurants. I found these next-door neighbors on Harrow Road north of Notting Hill. Talk about competition! (To make things even more intense, Chicken Valley, pictured in my earlier post, is right down the street.)


And then there's nearby Carolina Chicken, which -- while violating my theory that red signs are required for chicken chains -- seems to similarly mimic a corporate giant by borrowing its typeface from Coca-Cola.

Rooster Express

There's apparently an unwritten rule of marketing that says when you open a fast-food chicken restaurant in London, you must give it a red and white sign. Blue accents are permitted.




I love the names -- although my brother recently found a place in Tennessee called "Chicken Blast." (Which, incidentally, illustrates that the red-sign rule does not apply in the American South.) I can't top that one yet.

This place (below) might be going a bit overboard on the blue. Call the poultry police! (I couldn't get my own photo because a construction barrier was in the way -- thanks, Google Streetview!)


Of course, I think we all know who set the standard for red-and-white signage.