Chicago Tribune profiles Uncle Remus founder Gus Rickette as he approaches his 100th birthday, tracing his journey from Mississippi to Chicago, the founding of the Black-owned fried chicken and mild sauce institution, and the family legacy behind the restaurant’s double-battered wings and signature mild sauce.
CBS News Chicago reports on Uncle Remus Saucy Fried Chicken’s trademark dispute with businesses operating under the similar name Uncle Remy’s Saucy Fried Chicken. The story highlights Charmaine Rickette’s effort to protect the legacy brand and notes that the competing locations removed disputed signage after receiving a cease-and-desist letter.
Taste of Black Chicago analyzes the Uncle Remus and Uncle Remy’s naming dispute as a case study in protecting Black business legacy, trademarks, reputation, and community trust. The article notes Uncle Remus publicly asserted federal and state trademarks and that disputed Uncle Remy’s signage was removed or covered shortly afterward.
Taste of Black Chicago frames the Uncle Remy’s controversy as a broader conversation about consumer confusion, cultural ownership, and the protection of long-standing Black food institutions. The article describes Uncle Remus as a Black-owned Chicago institution founded in 1969 and highlights community reaction supporting the original brand.
Taste of Black Chicago reports that Uncle Remus Saucy Fried Chicken formally confronted the operators of Uncle Remy’s Saucy Fried Chicken over alleged trademark infringement and brand confusion. The article describes the brand’s federal and state trademark position, the reported Lansing and South Side locations, and Uncle Remus’ threat of further legal action if the name and branding were not removed.
Austin Weekly News includes Uncle Remus among West Side restaurant standouts and highlights the Madison Street location’s history. The piece recounts how Gus and Mary Rickette founded G & G Chicken Shack, later expanded as Royal Chicken, and adopted the Uncle Remus name while rebuilding after two of their stores burned during the 1968 riots along Madison Street.
Village Free Press covers the reopening of the Broadview Uncle Remus location after a year-long renovation. The article highlights the updated Uncle Remus 2.0 facility, digital ordering upgrades, a tribute to the franchise’s history, and the 20th anniversary of the Broadview location.
InsideHook’s story on Chicago mild sauce cites Uncle Remus Saucy Fried Chicken alongside Harold’s Chicken Shack and Lem’s Bar-B-Q as foundational restaurants that helped perfect and popularize the condiment. The article connects Uncle Remus’ Southern roots with the barbecue-sauce influence behind Chicago’s mild sauce tradition.
Austin Weekly News reports that Uncle Remus Saucy Fried Chicken reopened its flagship West Side location at 5611 W. Madison St. after a 13-month pandemic-related closure. The article details the remodel, city grant support, upgraded ordering technology, and the restaurant’s longstanding role in Chicago’s mild sauce culture.
CBS News Chicago covers the grand reopening of Uncle Remus on Chicago’s West Side after a pandemic-era setback. The story notes community leaders attended the reopening and that the remodel was supported by a $160,000 INVEST South/West grant for technology, infrastructure, and aesthetic upgrades.
Better features Uncle Remus Saucy Fried Chicken in a roundup of family businesses making an impact in Chicago and beyond. The article highlights CEO Charmaine Rickette, founder Gus Rickette, the Madison Street remodel, fourth-generation customers, the restaurant’s double-battered fried chicken and mild sauce, and the company’s workforce and community partnerships.
The West Side neighborhood of Austin is one of the city’s largest community areas, by both geographic size and population, with about 100,000 residents. It is marked by some beautiful stately old homes, and giant Columbus Park on the western edge, but also high rates of disinvestment, poverty and crime. Austin has become a hot spot for COVID-19 cases, following a trend in which African Americans are disproportionately getting sick and dying from the virus. According to the city of Chicago, Austin falls into a zip code that has recorded a COVID-19 case rate of between 431-720 people per 100,000.
Neighborhood streets in Austin that once bustled with life are now sparsely populated as residents shelter in place to help curb the spread of COVID-19. And local restaurants are feeling the effects.
In Jamaica, chicken is jerked. In Nashville, it’s hot. Here in Chicago, chicken gets dipped or doused in mild sauce. Combining the sweet flavor of ketchup, smoky tang of barbecue sauce and bite of hot sauce, mild sauce has been a staple at Black-owned chicken joints for generations, a cultural hallmark served up with southern-fried classics.
The Popeyes fried-chicken sandwich feeding frenzy is expected to peak this weekend. Long lines and sad sold-out stories have been popping up across social media for days. In my humble opinion, instead of following the flock, you might work your way through the 15 best fried-chicken sandwiches in Chicago restaurants, a list painstakingly researched by my fellow food reporter Nick Kindelsperger. But for a Chicago-style fried-chicken sandwich? One that needs us, a city of hustlers, to make it ourselves? I say go to Harold’s or Uncle Remus or go home.
If you listen to the stories of some of the founders of longtime Black-owned restaurants in Chicago, you’ll hear years of crushing struggles somehow overcome by quiet success. The first families of Black food culture in Chicago not only dominate the South Side with lines out their doors, they also cross cultural boundaries, luring people hungry for their barbecue, fried chicken, mild sauce, apple fritters and sweet steak sandwiches.
TM 2024 by Uncle Remus SFC.
Prices may vary. Prices do not include tax. Upcharges and Surcharges may apply.
All Pictures are shown for illustrative purposes only.