Roscoe's House of Chicken and Waffles is a Hollywood, California-based soul food restaurant chain founded by Herb Hudson, a Harlem native, in 1975. It is best known, as the name states, for serving chicken and waffles, both together and separately, although they do offer more traditional menu items as well.
Soon after it was opened, Hudson had friends in Motown and television such as Natalie Cole who would spread the word to other celebrities; Redd Foxx would tell his audience that he went there. The Los Angeles Times refers to Roscoe's as "such an L.A. institution that people don't even question the strange combo anymore." The New York Times refers to it as a "beloved soul food chain". The original location in Hollywood remains popular with celebrities.
In 2008, Roscoe's fielded a successful trademark infringement lawsuit against "Rosscoe's House of Chicken & Waffles" which had recently opened in Chicago. The infringing store was forced to drop its infringing logo and name. A previous "Rosscoe's" had opened in New York City, but the LA-based chain opted to not sue that location because it had no plans to enter the market; however, Roscoe's did plan to enter the Chicago market.
The chain has been featured in popular media a number of times. The 1988 movie Tapeheads features a fake ad spot for the company. It was also mentioned in Quentin Tarantino's Jackie Brown, the comedy film Rush Hour and Swingers. Ludacris mentioned the restaurant in the song "Call Up The Homies" from the album Theater of the Mind with the lyrics "Let's roll to Roscoe's and grab somethin to eat", while Californian band The Aquabats also mentioned Roscoe's alongside several other chicken restaurants in their 1997 song "Magic Chicken!". Snoop Dogg considers the restaurant one of his favorites: on his own reality show, Snoop Dogg's Father Hood, he took David Beckham in 2007, and in 2008 he took Larry King on Larry King Live. The Notorious B.I.G. also mentions Roscoe's in his song "Going Back to Cali". The chain was also mentioned on The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air.
Roscoe's is alluded to repeatedly in the 2009 blaxploitation parody Black Dynamite, which features a gunfight set at a "Roscoe's Chili and Donuts". Roscoe, the owner, mentions that the business is not going well. A later scene has Roscoe screaming "That's it!" and running out of a diner when an overworked waitress complains that they only have waffles and chicken.
Read more about Roscoe's House Of Chicken And Waffles: Locations
Famous quotes containing the words house and/or chicken:
“Perchance the time will come when every house even will have not only its sleeping-rooms, and dining-room, and talking-room or parlor, but its thinking-room also, and the architects will put it into their plans. Let it be furnished and ornamented with whatever conduces to serious and creative thought. I should not object to the holy water, or any other simple symbol, if it were consecrated by the imagination of the worshipers.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“Sometimes I lifted a chicken that warn’t roosting comfortable, and took him along. Pap always said, take a chicken when you get a chance, because if you don’t want him yourself you can easy find somebody that does, and a good deed ain’t ever forgot. I never see papa when he didn’t want the chicken himself, but that is what he used to say, anyway.”
—Mark Twain [Samuel Langhorne Clemens] (1835–1910)