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Roadside relic lives to cluck another day

Photo by Todd DeFeo

MARIETTA, Ga. – On the whole, road food doesn't have the same flair that it once did. Fast food restaurants have moved to a middle-of-the-road conformity, seemingly content with a bland approach to design, food and charm.

The Big Chicken, located along Cobb Parkway in southern Marietta, is a throwback to another time, one when roadside eateries meant something different, and owners did what they could to draw people driving past.

In the early 1960s, S.R. "Tubby" Davis saw a potential with the relatively newly repaved Cobb Parkway, a divided highway that predated freeways as we know them today. Wanting to lure hungry travelers into his Johnny Reb's Chick, Chuck and Shake restaurant, he erected a 56-foot-tall big chicken. After Davis sold the restaurant to his brother, it became a Kentucky Fried Chicken franchise.

Today, the Big Chicken is a bit of an anomaly, something unique at a fast food restaurant. Cobb Parkway is a string of urban sprawl, one fast food joint after another. Maybe that's what makes the Big Chicken so unique. Originally built as more or less a marketing gimmick, it has been embraced by locals and is has remained a landmark – even for directions – for more than 45 years.

After it was damaged by a storm in 1993, KFC debated whether to rebuild the Big Chicken. The community seemed to be in agreement: the Chicken was a local landmark, and it needed to remain.

Today's incarnation of this local icon features a moving beak and rotating eyes. While the original Big Chicken also featured a moving beak and eyes, the machinery apparently caused serious vibrations strong enough to break nearby windows, according to local sources.

IF YOU GO: The Big Chicken is located at 1970 N. Cobb Parkway (at the intersection of Cobb Parkway and Roswell Road). It's free to look at, but the food inside the restaurant costs money.