By Aaron Allen, The Seattle Medium
Across the street from Garfield High School on a crisp Friday afternoon, Feb. 3, 1984, the Central District was introduced to a sound and aroma that would help reshape Seattle’s culinary and cultural landscape.
A live broadcast hosted by Jakandi Klove filled the air as students from Rainier Beach, Franklin, Cleveland and Roosevelt high schools crowded together, their breath misting in the winter cold. Inside a modest storefront, childhood friends from Marshall, Texas, worked over steaming vats of oil, turning out crisp, Southern-style fried chicken and baking fresh rolls from scratch, just as they had done as teenagers at Brown’s Fried Chicken in East Texas.
“I still remember ‘Bubbling Brown Sugar’ over at Garfield High School the day we opened up,” recalled Lewis Rudd, co-founder, president and CEO of Ezell’s Famous Chicken. “From day one, the community embraced Ezell’s. They embraced the family.”
Forty-two years later, that single storefront has grown into one of the Pacific Northwest’s most recognizable restaurant brands, and Rudd has been named the winner of the Best For-Profit Business Owner/CEO category in The Seattle Medium’s inaugural Best of the Best Northwest Readers’ Choice Awards. The honor recognizes not only the longevity of a business, but also the enduring character of a man who has always viewed his company as an extension of the community that embraced it.
The road from a small-town Texas dream to an iconic Seattle institution was far from smooth.
By 1987, buoyed by the success of the Central District location, Rudd and his partners set their sights on a second restaurant at 4216 University Way in Seattle’s University District.
It was there that Rudd encountered what he describes as his first experience with redlining, the discriminatory practice of denying or limiting loans and other financial services based on the racial makeup of a neighborhood rather than an applicant’s qualifications.
“That’s when we first encountered redlining,” Rudd said. “The banker held up our loan papers saying, you know, if we would go south, we could get the loan. Well, what’s that got to do with it? Well, ‘Black people eat chicken.’ He actually said that.”
The branch manager eventually relented, and the University District location did open, but the damage had already been done. The financial terms and institutional obstacles pushed the business into the red almost immediately. It triggered a grueling, decade-long struggle marked by debt restructuring and intense negotiations with creditors.
Related Article: Thank You For Making Our Inaugural Best Of The Best Northwest Readers’ Choice Awards A Huge Success
“It was a 10-year setback,” Rudd said. “By the time we got through that lease and paid off the creditors and got back to black, ten years had gone by. It took a huge toll on the business, the family, but, you know, we survived it. We stuck to it.”
That perseverance eventually laid the foundation for Ezell’s continued expansion into Skyway, White Center, Bellevue and communities across the Puget Sound region.
To understand how Rudd led the company through those difficult years without losing its identity, one has to look back to the tiny East Texas town of just 249 people where he was raised.
“It was a caring community and it was that village mentality,” Rudd said. “Everybody cared for everybody, you know, no one went hungry, no one went without.”
When Ezell’s opened in Seattle, Rudd wasn’t simply opening a restaurant. He was recreating the kind of village that had shaped him growing up.
In the early years, rather than throwing away leftover chicken at closing time, Ezell’s partnered with the Central Area Motivation Program (CAMP) and the Central Area Youth Association (CAYA). Representatives would regularly arrive at the restaurant around closing time to collect the remaining food and distribute it to neighborhood families and young people.
Local faith leaders, including Rev. Robert Manaway and a young Rev. Zachary Bruce, would regularly stop by simply to pray over the business and its employees.
Inside the corporate office, that same spirit of care extended to the staff. When working mothers faced child care challenges, Fay, the administrative brains behind the operation, would simply tell them to bring their children to work.
“Bring the babies in the office, and she’d watch the kids while she’s doing her paperwork so that the mom could come on to work,” Rudd said. “It was that caring environment and that culture that we have, I think, contributes to the sustainability that we’ve been able to have over the years.”
Today, Rudd’s focus has shifted from the daily operational grind to long-term community empowerment.
For decades, Ezell’s has remained a fixture of community traditions, including preparing thousands of pieces of chicken for participants in Seattle’s annual Martin Luther King Jr. Day March.
But according to those who know him best, Rudd’s greatest impact happens away from the spotlight.
“We often tell Lewis that he needs to write a book because it’s amazing the work that he’s done and has been able to do with Ezell’s, and the impact that they’ve had within the community,” said Viola Esdaille, Ezell’s corporate executive assistant.
Esdaille said Rudd’s vision extends far beyond serving great food.
“The work, I think one of the most important things that maybe people don’t realize is that it does go beyond just serving great chicken and great food,” Esdaille said. “Ezell’s is really an active part of the community, wanting to ensure that especially other Black businesses have the tools and education that they need to sustain themselves, especially during times like these. They really do sow into their community, and especially again with other Black businesses. It’s very important to them that they see other businesses flourishing.”
Whether through formal donations, one-on-one business mentorship or simply making himself available to entrepreneurs seeking guidance, Rudd has quietly invested in helping other Black-owned businesses build, grow and sustain themselves.
For Rudd, that work reflects the same three values that have guided Ezell’s from the beginning: honesty, loyalty and relationships.
As he reflects on being named Best For-Profit Business Owner/CEO, Rudd insists the recognition belongs as much to the community as it does to him.
“I greatly appreciate the [award],” Rudd said. “We want to express our sincere appreciation to the community for continually supporting us over the 42 years that we’ve been around. It means a lot. And we want to be around for another 42 years, serving up some good chicken and potato salad and mac and cheese and the fresh homemade rolls. We definitely appreciate the support.”
For Rudd, success has never been measured solely by the number of restaurants bearing the Ezell’s name. It has been measured by the strength of the community that first embraced a small chicken shop across from Garfield High School and by the village he has spent the last four decades helping build.
To see the full list of winners visit bestofthebestnw.com
