Two brothers, one recipe, and a door that stayed open.
Robert and James Paschal came to Atlanta from Thomson, Georgia. Robert ran the kitchen. James ran the business. For fifty years they did both together, and fried chicken was always the specialty of the house.
Their counter fed a neighborhood, then a movement. Paschal Brothers Fried Chicken carries that first recipe forward for a new generation of Atlanta.
- 1947
The brothers open a thirty-seat luncheonette on West Hunter Street. There’s no stove yet, so the chicken is fried at home and brought over by taxi.
- 1959
Robert’s fried chicken outgrows the corner. The brothers move into a much larger restaurant and add dinner service.
- 1960s
The restaurant stays open all night for students and civil rights organizers, feeding them and posting their bail when they’re jailed for protesting.
- Today
Robert’s chicken is still served in Castleberry Hill at 180 Northside Drive, in a dining room lined with photographs of the people who planned history at the brothers’ tables.