Lee's Famous Recipe Chicken


Lee's Famous Recipe Chicken is a casual dining franchise founded in 1966 specializing in chicken, homestyle sides, and biscuits.

History

Lee Cummings, the nephew of Colonel Harland Sanders. After the sale of KFC in 1962, Cummings began developing his recipe, later to be known as "Famous Recipe." In 1966, Cummings, along with Harold Omer, started "Harold's Take-Home" in Lima, Ohio where Cummings first introduced his Famous Recipe Chicken. Later that year, Cummings opened the restaurant's first franchise in Columbus, Ohio. Locations in Springfield, Dayton, and Cincinnati, Ohio followed in the coming years, as well as a unit in Kalamazoo, Michigan.
In 1981, Cummings sold the chain to Shoney's Restaurants in Nashville, Tennessee. Shoney's continued to operate Lee's along with their own Captain D's and Shoney's Restaurants until 1995, when Lee's was sold to RTM Restaurant Group in Atlanta, Georgia.
In May 2003, the chain had 29 company-owned locations and 125 franchised locations. In October 2003, Lee's Famous Recipes Inc. purchased the chain from RTM. In April 2013, Famous Recipe Group LLC purchased the chain from Lee's Famous Recipes, Inc.