Meat & Poultry -- January 2014 - 44

CHICKEN CAPITAL

nobody complains about the lard at Belgrade Gar-

Chicken's founder, Colonel Sanders and jokingly told him,

dens, Papich says. "People know what they're getting."

"If you had my recipe, you would have been a general."
When Hopocan Gardens opened, the only two items

If it wasn't for Belgrade...

it offered were a white-chicken dinner and a dark-chicken

USA Today once hailed Belgrade Gardens, which took its

dinner. Both cost $1. The restaurant later added a large

name from the capital city of Serbia, as one of the Top 10

dinner for $1.50.

chicken restaurants in America. If there wasn't a Belgrade

When he was a kid in the 1960s, Canale remembers

Gardens, there might not be other chicken houses. Hopocan

the restaurants all having lines out the door. "But the

Gardens, White House
Chicken and Milich's
Village Inn all began

"If you want all-natural, what can
be more natural than [lard]?"

with former employees of Belgrade Gardens.
"All of those places have direct links to our original
location," Papich says.
Knowing a good thing when she saw it, Canale's grandmother, Helen DeVore, worked at Belgrade Gardens, but
she left the restaurant to start Hopocan Gardens when Barberton was booming. Canale inherited the business from
his stepfather, Bob DeVore, who once met Kentucky Fried

poundage of chicken is
nowhere near what it
used to be," he says.

In 1990, Hopocan Gardens purchased White House
Chicken. The two entities sell about 6,000 lbs. of chicken
per week. While Hopocan Gardens' menu features hamburgers, ham, liver and fish, 90 percent of its customers
order the chicken.
"And we sell about 3,000 lbs. of fried chicken to about
20 lbs. of grilled chicken," Canale notes.
Papich says Belgrade Gardens sells up to 6,000 lbs. of
chicken per week. That number was about 10,000 lbs. in
the glory days.
Last summer, Belgrade Gardens celebrated its 80th
anniversary. Belgrade Gardens has grown into something
his grandparents would never have imagined, Papich says.
"Unfortunately, it didn't come without a price to pay
as they worked about 20 hour days to get the business up
and established," he adds.
Papich says business is steady, but not nearly what it
was 25 years ago. He isn't so sure there's enough room
for all of the chicken houses in Barberton because of increased competition from other restaurants.
Canale says Hopocan Gardens has sustained through
difficult economic times, thanks to its tradition.
"It's still a great value," he adds, noting a chicken dinner
costs under $10. "A large dinner can feed three people."
Even though they're in competition with one another, the chicken houses remain friendly with one another.
"If somebody is out of a product, we'll trade product
back and forth to help each other out," Canale says.
While he's in a business in a town that has helped define
fried chicken, Canale says he's also in the happy business.
"People come in here happy because they're going to
have a chicken dinner," Canale says. "My job is to make
sure they leave happy." ■
Larry Aylward is a freelance editor from Medina, Ohio.

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