Celebrated Edmonton fried chicken vendor opens 2nd location

From celebratory cake to chicken, there was plenty to cheer about at the grand opening of a popular local restaurant's second location.

Ralphs Fried Chicken opened its new locale in the central Edmonton neighbourhood Queen Mary Park on Monday.

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"They make the best chicken in town, and they're really good people," customer Erica Nelson told CTV News Edmonton at the opening.

The new location is the second in as many years for the venerable Ralphs Fried Chicken, which opened in Castle Downs last year after leaving its original home in Strathearn after three-plus decades due to LRT construction.

"It went beyond the chicken in the store," Nelson said. "This is a place where the whole community would meet. It was the heart of Strathearn. It was really sad to lose them."

Ralph's Chicken has a devoted following. Owner Hussein Salah says the closure of Ralphs' Strathearn location was tough to experience.

"We are part of the community," Salah said. "Most of them are like close friends, like family."

The chicken counter inside the Queen Mary Park location of Ralphs Fried Chicken on Aug. 12, 2024. (Matt Marshall/CTV News Edmonton)Salah and his family wanted to return to their roots with this location: A convenience store with the chicken counter tucked away in the corner, just like it was at Strathearn's Handi Mart.

"Everything is the same, from Strathearn to here," he said.

Salah says all the shelving and equipment at the Queen Mary Park site are from the original location, a tribute to its past as the vendor forges ahead.

And a plan that will always include the patriarch of the family -- retirement isn't in the cards anytime soon for Salah.

"As long as I can walk," he said. "No sense sitting down at home doing nothing."

Instead, he'd rather be sitting outside the store, where the coffee and the conversation are always flowing.

And he's already thinking of their next Ralphs Fried Chicken location.

"We're going to try to cover the four corners of the city, hopefully," Salah said.