{"id":866,"date":"2010-12-04T12:32:00","date_gmt":"2010-12-04T18:32:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.keloland.com\/lund\/?p=866"},"modified":"2023-07-20T21:00:10","modified_gmt":"2023-07-20T21:00:10","slug":"the-keg-and-i","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.jodystaples.com\/main\/the-keg-and-i\/","title":{"rendered":"The Keg and I"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"the\u201cDoug, did you see our \u201cKeg\u201d is closing?\u201d Linda said after reading a story in the morning paper. \u201cOh, no,\u201d came my reply in the same tone I would use at the loss of an old friend.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

I\u2019ve always liked fried chicken, I guess. But it wasn\u2019t until I tasted \u201cbroasted\u201d chicken from Ricky\u2019s Quicky Chicky on East 10th<\/sup> Street in Sioux Falls way back in the 60\u2019s that I learned to \u00a0LOVE chicken and crave it like an addict in need of a fix.<\/strong><\/p>\n

What was so special about it? I have no idea except I\u2019ve been told that the owner, Rick Bell, marinated every piece of chicken in a secret solution then rolled them in a generous amount of breading , the ingredients of which were also a well guarded secret, and then broasted them. <\/strong><\/p>\n

\"theThe end result was a less greasy crispy delicious coating on the outside and tender moist meat on the inside. Each batch cooked to order, no sitting under heat lamps or in holding ovens. \u00a0It took a little longer but the wait was always worth it<\/strong><\/p>\n

I don\u2019t know all the details but in 1979, Hal and Donna Larsen bought the business called Keg Beer Lounge which included Ricky\u2019s special chicken recipe and the delicious tradition continued. \u00a0I remember salivating as I sat in the car waiting to pick up my order at the drive-up window. \u00a0Well, they got so much chicken business that they eventually moved into a larger east side location and when they outgrew that, relocated to 26th<\/sup> and Sycamore. The Larsen\u2019s later sold the business to their son Neil and head cook, John Cassidy. They, too didn\u2019t change the recipe and kept turning out that great chicken which led to expanding to a second store on the West side of Sioux Falls in 2004.\u00a0 After Sunday, it\u2019s going to be the only Keg left. <\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

In an interview with the Argus, Cassidy said the economy has been tough on the Keg\u2019s business and when an opportunity arose to sell the 26th<\/sup> and Sycamore location, the decision was made to consolidate. So now, we get another sports bar in its place with lots of TV screens, beer varieties and boring plates of nachos, burgers and reheated frozen chicken strips. I\u2019m sure that\u2019s fine with some folks, but not for \u00a0those of us who have had the world\u2019s best fried chicken just down the street for all these years and probably figured it would always be there.\u00a0 <\/strong><\/p>\n

Well, Doug, you might be saying, you can still get Keg chicken, you just have to drive a ways for it. And that\u2019s true but I know that when the fried chicken hankerings come upon me, I\u2019ll end up staying close to home..settling for the so-so stuff offered up at grocery stores or the Colonel. Eventually, my taste buds will adapt to such mediocrity but my mind will never forget the pure pleasure of biting into a perfectly prepared piece of hot crunchy Ricky\u2019s Quicky Chicky fresh from the fryers at the Keg. \u00a0I just wish I and other east side Keg fans would have had those hankern\u2019s more often so maybe the place wouldn\u2019t have had to closed.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cDoug, did you see our \u201cKeg\u201d is closing?\u201d Linda said after reading a story in the morning paper. \u201cOh, no,\u201d came my reply in the same tone I would use at the loss of an old friend. \u00a0 I\u2019ve always liked fried chicken, I guess. But it wasn\u2019t until I tasted \u201cbroasted\u201d chicken from Ricky\u2019s…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[60],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-866","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-lund-at-large","category-60","description-off"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jodystaples.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/866","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jodystaples.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jodystaples.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jodystaples.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jodystaples.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=866"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.jodystaples.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/866\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11833,"href":"https:\/\/www.jodystaples.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/866\/revisions\/11833"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jodystaples.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=866"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jodystaples.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=866"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jodystaples.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=866"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}