King Chicken -- Fried And Flighty, Ezell's Rep Is Growing Like City's

Oprah Winfrey and I don't have a whole lot in common.

Except this: a continuing need to diet - and a deep love of Ezell's deep-fried chicken.

I dropped into Ezell's University District outlet a couple of days ago to ingest a front quarter and a leg or two, and I ran into Lewis Rudd, one of Ezell's founding partners (along with Fay Stephens (Lewis' sister), Samuel Stephens (who is married to Fay) and - of course - Ezell Stephens).

Lewis was in good spirits. The U District was finally beginning to learn about fried chicken what Seattle's Central Area has known since 1984. Which is: Ezell's makes the best fried chicken in the Northwest, possibly the best fried chicken in the country.

To repeat an observation I made a couple of years ago - if Harlan Saunders of Kentucky Fried Chicken deserved to be a colonel, then Ezell, Lewis, Fay and Samuel are five-star generals.

Their chicken is so good that the Seattle Seahawks have it catered on every flight the team makes to its away games.

(There is a persistent dietary theory that holds to the belief that the reason the Seahawks play so terribly on the road is because they arrive in Denver or Cleveland or New York so full of Ezell's fried chicken that they are too mellow to do anything as aggressive as, for example, tackle).

``Things are going real good, now,'' Lewis said. So good, in fact, that the delivery business was getting exciting.

Any interesting deliveries lately, I asked him.

``Chicago,'' he said.

Ezell's delivers to Chicago?

Not regularly, he said. But this had been a special delivery.

``We catered Oprah Winfrey's birthday party,'' he said. ``In Chicago.''

This is how it came about. The television entertainer with the most publicized weight loss since Liz Taylor lost several chins fell in love while she was in Seattle just before Christmas. She fell in love with Ezell's fried chicken.

Now, fried chicken may be many things to many people, but it is not - usually - a celebrated dieter's dietary supplement. I mean, you could lob a fried chicken leg into a Nutri/system evening weigh-in and clear the room with it faster than a grenade.

But Oprah had a weakness (and still does). She apparently asked somebody at KING-TV if there was any good fried chicken in Seattle and was told about Ezell's.

She went back to her hotel room and called to order some.

``The guy who took the call told her, sorry, but the hotel was not in our regular delivery area,'' Lewis said.

``What she said was, `This is Oprah Winfrey. I've heard you've got great chicken. I want some great fried chicken and I want it NOW.'

``The guy thought it was some kind of a joke,'' Lewis said. ``But Fay overheard the conversation and took the call. We delivered the chicken.''

That was a Saturday night. She ordered it again on Sunday.

``Next thing we knew, she mentioned us on the air. It was on a program with dieters about how some kinds of food could make them fall off their diets. She was talking about that with a woman whose weakness was chocolate, and Oprah said - let's see, I have it here on the transcript:

``Well, mine is fried chicken. I'm sorry, like I was up in Seattle, and there's this place called Ezell's . . .''

Lewis paused: ``The phone rang off the wall.''

It rang again 10 days ago. Beverly Coleman of the Winfrey staff wanted to know if it was possible for Ezell's to ship some chicken back to Chicago for a surprise birthday party in the studio. Hard to find a gift for her.

``Ship it?'' Lewis recalled. ``Ezell said he'd do better than that, he'd BRING it.

``They sent first-class, round-trip airline tickets and we flew out a week ago Sunday. We marinated the chicken overnight and cooked it Monday. I still can't believe it; we flew 1,800 miles to fry chicken.''

In all, 240 pieces were fried for about 75 guests.

``She came off the set and the first thing, she headed right for the fried chicken and grabbed a piece,'' Lewis said. ``She ate it, she smiled, and said: `Just like it was in Seattle. No question about it. The best I ever had.' ''

What else did the birthday girl have served?

Macaroni, salad, corn bread and sweet-potato cheesecake flown in from Philadelphia.

Sweet-potato cheesecake on a diet?

``I know,'' said Lewis. ``But it was good. In fact, very good.''

How much fried chicken did Oprah consume?

``I don't think I should say. It's like eating cake on your birthday. Maybe you know you shouldn't. But it's good and it's only once a year.''

The upshot of the Oprah Winfrey birthday party was that several attendees insisted Ezell's open up in Chicago.

``Yeah, that's what they're asking us to do,'' said Lewis.

I don't care if the Mariners someday move to Indianapolis; I don't care if the Seahawks move to Oakland or the Sonics to Tacoma or the Pike Place Market to New York.

But if Ezell's goes, I go. Unless somebody here learns to make sweet-potato cheesecake.

John Hinterberger's column appears Sunday in Arts & Entertainment and Wednesday in the Scene section of The Times. His restaurant reviews appear Friday in Tempo.