There really was a berry farm. For that matter, there really were farmers whose surname was Knott. Unlike most theme parks, which rely on fictional backstories to drive their narratives, Knott’s Berry Farm in Buena Park, California is rooted in reality.
Mrs. Knott’s Chicken Dinner Restaurant, which sits at its front gate, is an integral part of the park and its fascinating and compelling history. The eatery remains hugely popular despite (or perhaps, in part, because of) its longevity and adherence to tradition. It is a tasty throwback to another era.
As the story–the real story–goes, Walter and Cordelia Knott moved to Buena Park in 1920 to establish their farm and raise their family. Among the crops they grew and sold were boysenberries, a hybrid fruit that Walter helped to develop and perfect. Cordelia began selling jams and jellies made from their berries at their farm stand.
She added her homemade hot biscuits and pies to the wares. Irony alert: Even though she didn’t much care to cook and had no intention of getting in the restaurant business, Cordelia nonetheless invited guests into her tearoom on a whim and served them fried chicken dinners using her wedding china. It was 1934, and people tried all kinds of things to help generate extra cash during the Great Depression.
The dinners were a big hit, and suddenly the farmers were, by default, restaurateurs. The Knotts kept expanding their restaurant to accommodate the enormous crowds–as many as 4,000 a day–that lined up for their down-home cooking. To help entertain the patrons waiting for a seat, the enterprising couple developed an Old West attraction using actual buildings from abandoned ghost towns. Over time, the attraction morphed into a major theme park that eventually overshadowed the restaurant. (Figuratively and literally; the park’s wonderful Ghost Rider wooden coaster towers over and runs alongside the eatery’s dining room.) Gradually, the farmers/restaurateurs found themselves primarily in the themed entertainment industry–an industry that they helped to define and nurture. (Fellow Californian Walt Disney took inspiration from Knott’s Berry Farm as he was developing Disneyland in nearby Anaheim.)
But the crowds never stopped lining up for Mrs. Knott’s Chicken Dinner Restaurant. It eventually grew to handle more than 900 diners at a seating, making it the largest restaurant of its kind in the world. With 1.5 million hungry guests chowing down on its chicken and other delicacies each year, the dining establishment remains a beloved Southern California landmark.
The secret to its success? 84 years after it opened, the food has remained more or less intact. Times change. Tastes Change. But Mrs. Knott’s remains true to its origins.
There have been some concessions to modernity, including the addition of menu items such as chipotle chicken salad and garlic fries topped with Parmesan cheese. But the vast majority of guests order what generations of diners have been ordering at Mrs. Knott’s: the fried chicken dinner complete with cherry rhubarb, a salad (slathered in boysenberry dressing of course), cabbage seasoned with ham, mashed potatoes with a puddle of gravy, buttermilk biscuits served hot with Knott’s yummy Berry Market boysenberry preserves, all topped off with a slice of boysenberry pie. American Heart Association guidelines be damned; this is gut-busting, old-school, comfort food at its finest.
Everything is made from scratch using the Knotts’ original recipes. But in the intervening 84 years, the kitchen has added some conveniences to automate some of the processes. Instead of an army of potato peelers, for example, a nifty machine rinses and skins the spuds.
Even more intriguing is the fryer machine that Knott’s had custom built. It is about 20 feet long and holds 2,000 pounds of oil. Cooks dredge chicken parts in flour and place them on a slow-moving conveyor belt at one end of the contraption. 33 minutes later, they emerge at the other end fried to perfection. The machine is designed to get chicken golden brown and crispy without losing its juicy tenderness. (Indeed, the breast I had was crispy and tasty on the outside, but very moist on the inside.)
When the kitchen is really cranking, it may cook up to 20,000 pounds of chicken in a day. To meet demand, the staff might start at 3 in the morning and feed the fryer machine nonstop until 11 at night.
Anyone hoping to discover Cordelia’s secret recipe wouldn’t be able to uncover anything by snooping around the restaurant’s kitchen. That’s because the chicken arrives pre-marinated to the restaurant from the processing plant according to Knott’s specifications.
Today, Mrs. Knott’s original tearoom remains, although it is airy and sports muted earth tones. Visitors might notice intentionally mismatched chairs, which evoke the spirit of the restaurant’s Depression-era beginnings. The pantry room includes a lovely pressed tin ceiling along with original as well as reproduced items from Cordelia’s 1934 kitchen.
Everyone can chime in with a comment. Please do! Have you dined at Mrs. Knott’s Chicken Dinner Restaurant? Did you order the classic fried chicken dinner?
I think we ate at this restaurant about 9 years ago and really enjoyed it. I also have a memory of chickens walking around outside which seems like an odd choice. Maybe not right outside the entrance buy near enough.