A room full of chicken restauranteers -- and don't forget the bread!

We got to take part in a pretty neat presentation on Friday morning in the Crawford County Courthouse, located in Girard. The series of events was planned by Craig Hull, Crawford County Convention & Visitor's Bureau director.

As a group entry, the six fried-chicken establishments in Crawford County were one of 24 finalists for the 8 Wonders of Kansas Cuisine. The top 8 were chosen by a public vote in a 7-week long contest and announced the end of June. Votes came from several hundred cities in Kansas, every state in the union, and some foreign countries.

Craig thought it would be fitting to have representatives from all 6 of the Crawford County chicken restaurants come together at a county commission meeting to receive their posters from the Kansas Sampler Foundation. WenDee LaPlant of the KSF designed the posters. After a few words from Marci, each restaurant was called up to receive their posters.



Representatives from Original Chicken Annies, Chicken Annie's at Girard, Pichler Chicken Annie's, Barto's Idle Hour, Gephardt's Chicken and Dinners, and Chicken Mary's.

It doesn't happen often that all six restaurants come together so it was a high impact moment and very special for us to be a part of it. These restaurants represent the source of much county history, pride -- and sales tax, too.

(For the story on each of the restaurants, click here.)



The county commission also made a proclamation to honor the award-winning restaurants by naming it Crawford County Fried Chicken Day. Commissioner McGeorge presented the proclamations.

PLEASE PASS THE BREAD!

But not just any bread! Make it Frontenac Bakery bread. Not only do most of the chicken restaurants serve Brian and JoLynn Hite's famous bread but the legions of satisfied customers are many.



The bakery was one of the 8 Wonders of Kansas Commerce as determined by a contest that ended at the end of February. The county commissioners also proclaimed a day to be Frontenac Bakery Day.

The Pittsburg Morning Sun and the local TV station were there to cover the event.

Craig Hull did a great job promoting the contests and giving his local entries a boost. It's great to have such an advocate. Sometime we forget that it's important to remind the locals about what they have in their backyard. The contest was a great opportunity to do that and Craig seized the chance to help folks "Get Crawford County."

Great job, Craig!

KE #2 Marci Penner