Prince's Hot Chicken (1940s)
Thornton Prince founded Prince's Hot Chicken Shack in a Nashville neighborhood, creating the city's signature fried chicken style: crisp, fiery, served on white bread with pickles. It stayed a local institution for decades.
Prince's became Nashville's standard-bearer for hot chicken.
A citywide hot chicken obsession grew, and later chains such as Hattie B's took the dish national.
Hattie B's is the most visible chain to export a dish that stayed local for roughly 70 years, giving its Chicago arrival cultural weight.
