Alaska Fried Chicken? In The UK, Every State Is Fair Game For A KFC Knockoff
If you decide to open a fried chicken joint in the U.K., please don't name it after a random U.S. state. Because, as a data scientist named Gwilym Lockwood recently discovered, it's apparently been done to death.
In a flurry of recent tweets, Lockwood explained how he decided to reach out to the U.K.'s Foods Standards Agency (which licenses every restaurant in the country) after seeing a restaurant named Tennessee Fried Chicken in his town, asking them to run a search for "[US State] Fried Chicken" in their database. The results are pretty hilarious.
And after excluding Kentucky (for obvious reasons), I found 13 Tennessees, 6 Kansas, 4 Californias, 2 Floridas, and 1 each of a few others. pic.twitter.com/ur4u8OizUZ
— Gwilym Lockwood (@GwilymLockwood) October 11, 2017
It turns out that there are far more U.K. fried chicken joints named after states than you might think, all presumably inspired by (OK, knockoffs of) Kentucky Fried Chicken.
There are 13 Tennessees, six Kansases, four Californias, two Floridas, and one each of Alaska, Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Mississippi, Montana, Ohio, Tennessee, Texas, and Virginia. Interestingly enough, nearly all of them were in and around the cities of London and Manchester, with Tennessee dominating London and Kansas in Manchester.
When you look at where these fried chicken places are in the UK, they're almost all in London or in/around Manchester: pic.twitter.com/nXzd2IIISa
— Gwilym Lockwood (@GwilymLockwood) October 11, 2017
So if you happen to find yourself passing by a Montana Fried Chicken the next time you're in Manchester, try it out and let us know how it is! Or if you'd rather, you can just visit one of America's 75 best fried chicken spots.