Ezell's feeds the community more than just chicken

Since a remodeling job brought Burien contractor Dewevell "D.J." Jones back to his old neighborhood, he's been buying lunch at Ezell's Famous Chicken on the corner of 23rd Avenue and East Jefferson Street in Seattle's Central Area at least once a week.

"They got the best chicken around. ... These guys, they put love in their food," Jones said Tuesday as he placed another order for crispy chicken and mashed potatoes with gravy.

But it's not just the food that keeps him coming back.

"They care about the neighborhood, they care about the community," said Jones, 45. "If they didn't, they wouldn't have stayed where they're at."

Twenty-three years ago — Feb. 3, 1984 — Ezell Stephens, childhood friend Lewis Rudd and three of their siblings turned a former burger joint on 23rd Avenue into what has become their flagship store, across the street from Garfield High School.

Ezell's since has become a Seattle staple, a favorite of celebrities, star athletes and working-class families. Even as they once warded off near-bankruptcy, Stephens, Rudd and their families have opened new locations in several Puget Sound communities. And as they celebrate their latest anniversary, they are trying to court investors to expand beyond the region.

But like their customers, Stephens and Rudd say Ezell's isn't just about chicken, fried gizzards, potato salad and sweet-potato pie. They say they want to change lives. They've hired teen moms, ex-cons and former gangsters. They have co-signed car loans, thrown baby showers and arranged for Spanish-speaking workers to attend free English classes.

"I think they exemplify the best of what you want a small businessman to be," former Seattle Mayor Norm Rice said. "They've given back to the community. They've been involved in a number of charitable events. ... They're just always there. They're an integral part of the lifeblood of the Central Area."

"I'll have my own"

Stephens, 54, and Rudd, 51, grew up in rural Scottsville, Texas, 35 miles from the Louisiana border. Two white families lived in the tiny town, but owned all the businesses, Stephens said.

On a walk into town when he was 12, Stephens said, he "asked my mama where ours was at, our black people doing business."

"I can't remember what she said," he said. "All I can remember is thinking, 'That's OK. I'll have my own one day.' "

Stephens and Rudd both dropped out of high school and got jobs in a fried-chicken restaurant. Stephens eventually joined the Coast Guard, and Rudd enlisted in the Army.

Stephens landed in Seattle in 1973 and married Rudd's sister Faye in 1974. The couple have since divorced, but Faye Stephens, one of Ezell's founders, is still the company's treasurer and secretary.

After Stephens left the Coast Guard in 1977, he cashed in some savings bonds and scraped together $4,500 for a down payment on a boarded-up building on 23rd Avenue.

After Rudd left the Army, he joined his friend and sister in Seattle. Stephens' brother Sam and Rudd's brother Darnell also migrated to the city. Together, they founded Ezell's.

Against the odds

It took the partners five years to get money needed to remodel the old building and buy needed equipment and supplies. Mainstream banks repeatedly turned them down for loans, partly because new restaurants are a risky venture. But Rudd also blames what he calls "camouflage racism."

As they awaited approval of a $120,000 loan from the Small Business Administration (SBA), they say, they battled zoning issues and people who tried to convince them that their idea would fail.

Finally, on opening day, a line of customers stretched down the block. When they closed that night, they had rung up $1,300 in sales.

Within a year, fueled by word of mouth, Ezell's began delivering to downtown offices — and to the Seattle Seahawks, which they still do.

But then came a stumble in 1988: The partners opened a second location, in the University District, and problems with bank loans and lackluster business almost spelled disaster. They racked up more than $500,000 in debt before closing the U District shop in 1994.

"We were in so deep all the experts were telling us to throw in the towel," Rudd said. "We just wouldn't accept that."

In 1989, as Rudd tells it, "all of a sudden, an angel came to town."

Talk-show queen Oprah Winfrey was taping a show in town when she first ordered Ezell's chicken. A couple of months later, in January 1990, Winfrey mentioned Ezell's on the air. Her staff famously invited Stephens and Rudd to Chicago to cook chicken for Winfrey's birthday party.

It put Ezell's "on the map," Rudd said.

Even so, it took the families five years to rebuild the business after the U District location closed.

More locations

Ezell's eventually went on to open more restaurants, first in Lynnwood in 1998 and then Skyway in 2000. They opened a restaurant in White Center in 2001, but it never took off and was shuttered a couple of years later. In 2003, Stephens and Rudd licensed a former employee to use Ezell's name for a shop in Tacoma.

And their success really has come from the fact that "they've got a product that transcends the African-American community," said Jim Thomas, chief executive of Community Capital Development, a consortium of nonprofits that loans money to businesses owned by women, minorities and low-income entrepreneurs.

Last year, Ezell's partners expanded to Woodinville, the Renton Highlands and to an employee cafeteria on Microsoft's Redmond campus. And after two decades of working out of their homes, the partners bought a wood-frame house in Rainier Beach and turned it into a corporate headquarters.

The boyhood friends from Texas now are trying to launch a nationwide franchise operation.

It may work. It may not.

Either way, "we're very proud of where we are today," Rudd said.

Sara Jean Green: 206-515-5654 or sgreen@seattletimes.com