Gus’s World Famous Fried Chicken is a popular fried chicken restaurant in downtown Memphis, Tennessee. It was founded in the tiny town of Mason, 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. There are 30 locations in 14 states across the United States. The business is known for advertising “chicken to die for” on hearse signs.The Red Rooster has also visited the business.
The journey to Gus’ world-famous fried chicken began more than 60 years ago in Mason, Tennessee. Napoleon “Na” Vanderbilt and his wife Gertrude sold hand-battered fried chicken out the back door of a tavern – since then, they have grown to 36 restaurants across the country.
Gus’s is the reigning champion of the National Fried Chicken Festival in New Orleans, the 12th most delicious restaurant in America to eat according to the Travel Channel, and one of GQ Magazine’s top ten restaurants in the world to fly to for lunch. No wonder the fried chicken recipe is top secret – Gus once said: “It’s a dead man’s recipe, and I’m not telling.”
Although the recipe originated in Tennessee, Gus’s fried chicken is not your typical hot chicken with cayenne sauce in Nashville: it’s battered and fried in peanut oil, creating a perfectly crispy, browned shell with a touch of spice.
The restaurant’s history, which hangs near the counter, says the recipe was so popular that even in Jim Crow South, white people lined up at his back door for a bag of chicken and encouraged him to open a restaurant.
He is said to have been a carpenter, he built the restaurant himself and opened it in 1973. Ten years later, Na and his wife died, leaving the business to their son. Gus officially opened in 1984.
Fast forward three decades and you’ll see that Gus’s has become synonymous with delicious chicken. The restaurant was named after Vernon, a nickname given by community members.