Kenny King’s: Remembering Big King Burgers and Colonel Sanders’ Chicken in Cleveland, Ohio
Kenny King’s became a familiar Northeast Ohio restaurant name through its Big King burgers, family dining, and early connection with Colonel Sanders’ chicken. Explore its beginnings in 1944, regional growth, and disappearance after decades of serving local families.
Opening
In Northeast Ohio, customers could order Colonel Sanders’ chicken at a restaurant whose sign said Kenny King’s.
Historical advertisements document that connection. An Elyria directory advertisement from 1962 and newspaper advertisements from the following years promoted Kentucky Fried Chicken alongside the local restaurant’s identity. Kenny King’s also served its own Big King steak burger.
That combination makes Kenny King’s an interesting chapter in American restaurant history. A regional business could serve familiar local favorites while helping introduce a product that would become internationally recognized.
The restaurants lasted well beyond the 1940s–1960s era. Historical accounts identify 2004 as the closing year of the final family-style location.
At a Glance
| Detail | Information |
|---|---|
| Place | Kenny King’s |
| Also known as | Kenny King’s Family Restaurants; Kenny King’s restaurants |
| Historical location | Cleveland and surrounding Northeast Ohio communities |
| Category | Regional restaurant chain, including drive-in and family-dining formats |
| Opened/established | Founder Kenneth J. King Sr. opened his first restaurant in 1944 |
| Closed/disappeared | Locations ended at different times; final family-style restaurant reportedly closed in 2004 |
| Current status | Original family-restaurant chain no longer operates |
| Remembered for | Big King steak burgers, Kentucky Fried Chicken, family meals, and children’s promotions |
The 1944 date refers to King’s first restaurant. Individual Kenny King’s locations require their own opening dates.
How It Began
Kenneth J. King Sr. worked his way into the restaurant business through years of demanding jobs.
His Horatio Alger Association biography describes early work as a soda-fountain clerk and other employment before he learned to cook in 1932. In 1944, he opened his first restaurant. Within approximately 20 years, the business had grown to 18 outlets in northern Ohio.
The chain developed during a period when roadside restaurants and drive-ins were becoming important parts of everyday dining.
A Cleveland retrospective identifies a 1950 West Park drive-in as an early area location and describes the business’s later expansion into family-style restaurants.
Kenny King’s grew by serving customers looking for an accessible meal close to home.
What Made It Special
The Big King steak burger
The Big King gave the restaurant a signature item of its own.
Historical accounts and advertisements identify it as a steak burger. Its place on the menu matters because Kenny King’s was more than an outlet for Colonel Sanders’ chicken. The business maintained its own restaurant identity and familiar dishes.
A customer’s favorite order could therefore depend on whether the visit was about burgers, chicken, or a family meal.
An early connection with Colonel Sanders
Kenny King became an early franchise operator for Colonel Harland Sanders’ chicken.
The Restaurant Ware Collectors Network documents the arrangement and describes Kenny King’s rights to serve Kentucky Fried Chicken in Northeast Ohio.
Period advertising provides additional evidence. A January 1960 newspaper preserved by the Euclid Public Library lists Kentucky Fried Chicken among Kenny King’s dinner choices.
This illustrates an earlier stage of chicken franchising: an established restaurant could add Sanders’ product to a broader menu.
Family dining with a reward for children
Kenny King’s also appealed to families through its Clean Your Plate Club.
A historical restaurant-ware account describes children receiving a toy from a Treasure Chest after finishing their meals.
The promotion made the restaurant experience extend beyond choosing food. A small reward could become part of what a child anticipated during a family visit.
A regional name with neighborhood connections
The chain reached communities beyond Cleveland.
Research using Elyria directories places a Kenny King’s at 903 Telegraph Road by October 1961. Later Lorain directories identify a carryout location on Oberlin Avenue in the early 1970s.
These records help distinguish the history of the chain from the history of a particular neighborhood restaurant. Each address had its own customers, employees, and operating years.
The Final Chapter
A second generation continued the business
Kenneth King Sr. died in 1972.
His son, Kenny King Jr., subsequently managed the restaurant chain, according to the Restaurant Ware Collectors Network’s historical account.
The business continued for decades beyond its founder’s lifetime.
The restaurants disappeared gradually
Kenny King’s did not end with one simultaneous shutdown.
Historical retrospectives describe a long-running regional business whose final family-style restaurant closed in 2004. Individual locations closed, changed identity, or followed other paths before that date.
The sources reviewed establish the broad ending more clearly than a single documented cause of decline. Specific explanations for a location’s closure should be supported by contemporary reporting rather than assumed from the chain’s disappearance.
The restaurant name and chicken connection were different things
Kenny King’s historical involvement with Kentucky Fried Chicken should not be confused with the continued operation of the original family restaurants.
The regional chain had its own menu and identity. KFC’s later presence does not establish that a particular Kenny King’s restaurant or building survived.
What’s There Now?
The current use of a former Kenny King’s property depends on its exact address.
Historical directories and advertisements can confirm where a restaurant operated. They cannot establish the present occupant without newer evidence.
For a local follow-up, useful sources include property records, current business location pages, planning documents, and dated exterior photographs. Old menus or family photographs may reveal features that have since been altered.
Current-site verification: No individual former Kenny King’s property has been independently verified for this overview as of October 12, 2026.
Do You Remember Kenny King’s?
Did you visit for a Big King burger or Colonel Sanders’ chicken? Do you remember the Clean Your Plate Club and choosing a toy from the Treasure Chest?
Share which location you visited and approximately when.
If you have old restaurant photographs, menus, advertisements, receipts, or employee keepsakes, tell Forgotten Spots about them. Please include any known dates and whether you own the material or have permission to share it.
Your memories could help preserve a neighborhood chapter of this Northeast Ohio restaurant story.
Sources and Credits
- Horatio Alger Association — Kenneth J. King Sr.: Founder’s biography, 1944 first restaurant, and early regional growth.
- Cleveland State University — Fast-Food Restaurant Industry: A Cleveland Perspective, 1930–2016: Historical study with references to contemporary Kenny King’s reporting and advertising.
- Restaurant Ware Collectors Network — Kenny King’s: Chicken-franchise connection, children’s promotion, family succession, and final closing year.
- Brady’s Bunch of Lorain County Nostalgia — Early Days of Kentucky Fried Chicken in Lorain County: Historical advertisements and directory research.
- Euclid Public Library — January 21, 1960 newspaper: Period advertising documenting Kentucky Fried Chicken on the menu.
- Cleveland Vintage — Kenny King’s, Northeast Ohio’s Home Away From Home: Supplemental retrospective on drive-in and family-restaurant formats.