Ever felt like a chicken with your head cut off trying to get ready for somethin'? Getting that cooped-up-I-need-a-vacation-feeling? The other day, we both started feeling a little peckish. We started to pull each other's leg. Laughter ensued. We wondered what came first San Diego or its famed chickens? This finger-lickin' good story followed.

Who says you can't be silly and succeed? Take a rock radio station promo idea, find a hungry college student to sport a whacky chicken costume and set him up to do whatever he wants to promote the station and fire up the folks at San Diego Padres games for just $2.00 per hour. The original two-buck-cluck. On the other hand, this crazy kid might have been the first cage-free chicken. Call it what you will, but this guy ultimately became the first professional sports mascot. You never know how a career can be hatched.

First known in 1974 as the "KGB Chicken," then the "San Diego Chicken," and now around the world as the "Famous Chicken," Ted Giannoulas has proven that, he with the most pluck, gets the buck. He's been on famous lists, famous magazines, met famous people, performed in famous places and ruffled feathers with all his antics. Somehow this crazy bird was able to transition baseball's traditional use of organ music to rock n' roll music. Speaking of rock n' roll, in 1976, the "San Diego Chicken" was doing his chicken dance at the San Diego Sports Arena. Elvis was on stage. Elvis, along with everyone else in the crowd, started laughing and had to stop the show for the time being. Good thing it was "Colonel Tom" with Elvis that night and not "Colonel Sanders" or we'd be telling a different story.

San Diego Chicken

We do have another chicken story, though. If you visit the City of Carlsbad, 30 miles north of San Diego, you might find the 7-foot plaster chicken that is imprisoned by the Carlsbad Historical Society at Magee Park. Sneak a peek through the double-paned window and you'll see the chicken. He wasn't always locked up. He and his buddy once stood proudly outside the Twin Inns Restaurant as a marketing tool. The Twin Inns Restaurant opened in 1919. It was known for its fried chicken dinners and brought the delight of the Hollywood set who made the trip for the Del Mar races or Caliente Racetrack in Tijuana. Even more, legions of San Diego families made the Twin Inns a family tradition. It remained in business for 60 years until the family sold the property in 1984. It became Neiman's Restaurant but was sold again ten years later in 2004. The beautiful Queen Anne-style Victorian mansion still exists today and Ocean House Restaurant honors the Twin Inns legacy at 300 Carlsbad Village Drive.

Like chicken pie? Since 1938, generations of residents have flocked to the Chicken Pie Shop to feast on their signature chicken pie dinners complete with chicken pie, mashed potatoes, steamed vegetables, a roll with butter, and a slice of pie or a bowl of ice cream. All of this served in record time and for basically chicken feed. Many customers fondly remember its original location on Fifth and Robinson Avenues in Hillcrest because it was a quaint and inexpensive place to take the whole family. What child was not entranced by the many varieties of bean 'paintings' of chickens that cluttered the walls of this place that chicken pies built?

As change came to Hillcrest in the late 1980s, the San Diego Chicken Pie Shop knew it was time to leave and relocated to North Park. It is now located at 2633 El Cajon Boulevard under the watchful gaze of the North Park Water Tower (that's another story). For those of you who think that all that poultry kitsch did not make the move, think again. It is all back up on the walls of the restaurant ready to keep you company as you dig your fork or spoon into that delicious gravy-covered chicken pie. This is a place that hasn't changed much. The early-birds, well, most of the birds who frequent the restaurant are seniors. They aren't spring chickens anymore, but they sure do like their pie. This is a cash-only, no-frills restaurant. No website. Phone: (619) 295-0156.

Since the end of World War II, on the way to Julian, in the town of Wynola, seekers of family-style fried chicken dinner with all the trimmings would make their way to Tom's Chicken Shack. Many a station wagon must have come to a sudden stop upon seeing the big chicken statue. The statue stuck out like a sore thumb as a rural landmark identifying a roadside purveyor of fried chicken nirvana. Lordy be, the theft of the big chicken caused quite a stir with the locals when it was plucked from its roost and spirited away by some pranksters.

Big chicken statue or not, Tom's Chicken Shack was a popular place for day trippers with its red and white checkered tablecloths and plenty of fowl décor. In the mid to late 1990s, Tom retired and closed the beloved Tom's Chicken Shack. Since then, it has been a Hungarian restaurant and is now a gourmet restaurant called Jeremy's on the Hill (4354 Highway 78, Wynola, CA ) Like Tom before him, Jeremy is a young guy who had a dream to open his own restaurant. In a nod to the old chicken shack, Jeremy's features a Chicken Shack Flash Back Night on Thursday nights.

We'll keep you abreast of any other stories that come to light, unless, of course, we chicken out.