navigation search gus s world famous fried chicken is a popular fried chicken restaurant in downtown memphis tennessee . it has been featured on food channel television shows including the best thing i ever ate 40 a day with rachel ray and man v. food . 1 fried chicken is the only entree offered and desserts include southern pies such as pecan chess sweet potato and coconut . 2 five locations have been reported 1 nashville and little rock arkansas locations have been added . 3 the business is known for the hearse out front advertising chicken worth dying for . 4 a red rooster also frequented the business . 5 contents 1 about gus s world famous fried chicken 2 current locations 3 see also 4 references 5 external links about gus s world famous fried chicken edit over 60 years ago in the small community of mason tennessee napoleon na vanderbilt created something amazing fried chicken that could unite a community . in an era of divisive racial attitudes the residents of mason found that they could all black and white agree on how much they loved na s fried chicken . such an amazing feat did not occur overnight . after experimenting for several years in a local tavern na and his wife ms. maggie began selling their chicken sandwiched between two slices of white bread out of the back door of the tavern . as demand grew na and maggie were encouraged by local residents to build a freestanding restaurant . unfortunately the vanderbilt s were of modest means and could not afford such an expansion ; however generous chicken loving locals offered to supply them with the materials necessary to build their own restaurant . na a skilled carpenter built the restaurant on a piece of land he and ms. maggie owned on highway 70 in mason . maggie s short orders opened its doors in 1973 . the building still stands today and still serves na and maggie s amazing fried chicken . maggie and na continued to serve their community until their deaths in 1982 and 1983 respectively . the restaurant however remained a family affair . na s only son vernon gus bonner inherited maggie and na s priceless recipe and the restaurant they worked so hard to build literally from the ground up . in 1984 gus and his wife gertrude reopened under the now well known name gus s world famous hot and spicy fried chicken . though the name may have changed the bonner family continued to honor na and ms. maggie s legacy by following and even perfecting their beloved fried chicken . you can t keep good fried chicken a secret and before long gus s world famous hot and spicy fried chicken had a following that stretched far beyond the quiet streets of mason tennessee . regional publications including the memphis commercial appeal began featuring the restaurant in the late 1980s and national publications such as saveur and gq magazine soon followed . in fact in january 2001 gq named gus s fried chicken one of the top ten meals in the united states worth flying for . however years before gq s writers took their first bite of gus s fried chicken the bonners found another loyal fan in memphis native wendy mccrory . wendy like so many before and after her simply loved gus s world famous hot and spicy fried chicken so much so that she would often take the forty mile trek to mason so that her out of town guests could enjoy a respite from the more typical memphis fare pork barbeque . seeing how truly special gus s was wendy began working in the mason location during the weekends getting to know the bonner family and learning all she could about their restaurant . after many years of eating gus s fried chicken serving gus s friend chicken and eventually cooking gus s fried chicken wendy opened the downtown memphis location in november of 2001 . in the years since she has grown the business to include 14 locations in 8 states with more restaurants planned . however no matter how many gus s locations open or how far across the globe they expand wendy and the entire gus s family remain dedicated the recipes and traditions originated by the bonners . note the slightly sweet beans and slaw served with every meal . gus and gertrude perfected these recipes allowing their slight sweetness to offset the spiciness of the fried chicken . notice too the slice of white bread that accompanies every plate a tribute to those original chicken sandwiches na and maggie served their clients over 60 years ago . as gus s continues to grow we will honor these traditions and serve up some of the world s best fried chicken . and before you ask no you can not have the recipe . as gus once quipped this is a dead man s recipe and i ain t telling . 6 current locations edit mason tn east memphis tn mendenhall little rock ar west st louis missouri maplewood memphis tn downtown little rock ar downtown oxford ms kansas city ks bartlett tn austin tx atlanta ga los angeles ca collierville tn southaven ms chicago il 7 see also edit list of chicken restaurants references edit a b gus s world famous fried chicken review about.com larry olmsted gus s world famous fried chicken in memphis usa today 7 21 2011 gus s fried chicken to open in little rock biz journals 1 gus s fried chicken huffington post april 10 2012 about us . gusfriedchicken.com . retrieved 2016 06 28 . gus s world famous fried chicken gus fried chicken . gusfriedchicken.com . retrieved 2016 06 28 . external links edit official website retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title gus % 27s world famous fried chicken & oldid 727467452 categories restaurants in tennesseebuildings and structures in memphis tennesseepoultry restaurantshidden categories tennessee articles missing geocoordinate dataall articles needing coordinates navigation menu personal tools not logged intalkcontributionscreate accountlog in namespaces article talk variants views read edit view history more search navigation main pagecontentsfeatured contentcurrent eventsrandom articledonate to wikipediawikipedia store interaction helpabout wikipediacommunity portalrecent changescontact page tools what links hererelated changesupload filespecial pagespermanent linkpage informationwikidata itemcite this page print export create a bookdownload as pdfprintable version languages add links this page was last modified on 29 june 2016 at 05 18 . text is available under the creative commons attribution sharealike license ; 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