Maryland Fried Chicken: End of an era for Winter Garden's crispy chicken in the yellow box

Memories are powerful, and when coupled with nostalgic smells and tastes, they can remain sharply in the mind forever. Have you ever bitten into a hot, crispy piece of meat from Maryland Fried Chicken?

Ever since Kyle and Sarah Sleeth announced they are closing the 57-year-old MFC on West Colonial Drive in Winter Garden, the restaurant has seen an increase in customers wanting to enjoy their last yellow box of thighs, breasts, gizzards and coleslaw.

There are other locations — but for some reason, folks say it’s just not the same as buying the chicken from the same restaurant you frequented as a child growing up in the area.

The Sleeths, who bought the franchise in 2020 from longtime owner Paul Dion, announced earlier this month the restaurant’s last day of business will be Saturday, April 1. The property, at 13675 W. Colonial Drive, Winter Garden, went under contract in an auction Wednesday, March 1.

Posterboard in the front windows thanked the community for its longtime support. The drive-thru has had more than its share of vehicles stacked around the back of the building since the announcement.

Sales of the company T-shirts — the iconic red with the mama and baby chick and the MFC motto, “The Difference is Delicious” — have been brisk as residents want to keep a little piece of Maryland Fried Chicken for themselves. The furniture and equipment are for sale, too. Proceeds from these sales will be given to the staff.

“Taking care of our people has always been our priority when closing became a reality,” Sarah Sleeth said.

The couple bought the franchise with plans to renovate the building, Sarah Sleeth said.

“(But) with the pandemic, the cost of everything went absolutely insane,” she said. “We’ve had to raise our prices several times to keep up. … We were priced out of being able to stay in the chicken business, and we also were priced out of keeping up with the repairs in the building.”

The Sleeths are celebrating customers’ stories, some of them going back decades to their childhoods.

“This isn’t just some business that’s been there five years; 57 is significant,” Sarah Sleeth said. “Winter Garden is so close to the (theme) parks that people will come into town and say, ‘I have to go to Maryland Fried Chicken.’ At least every other visit I’m there (at the restaurant), I hear someone say, ‘I drive from X miles away to get some Maryland Fried Chicken.’”

THE DIFFERENCE IS DELICIOUS

There are several factors that make the chicken so special, Sarah Sleeth said. The meat is double marinated in a concoction the Sleeths won’t reveal, cooked in peanut oil and pressure fried to get the famous crispy skin.

She added that the livers and gizzards are unique to the Winter Garden location.

“It’s an old Southern delicacy from their childhood, and they go for it,” she said.

A FAMILY AFFAIR

In 1959, the Constantine family — Alfonso and Rose and their three sons, Albert, Angelo and Richard — owned the first 24-hour eatery in the area on South Orange Blossom Trail in Orlando. It was called Constantine’s Restaurant and was in the family for decades.

Linda Costantine, who was married to Angelo until his death in 2002, said the three brothers heard about a restaurant that only sold chicken and this piqued the interest of Albert, who was the family cook.

“He liked messing around in the kitchen,” she said. “He started looking for different recipes, and when he found one that everyone liked, it became the basis for Maryland Fried Chicken.”

The family added the fried chicken to the menu at Constantine’s Restaurant.

Around this time, Martin Marietta was bringing employees to Orlando, many of them from Maryland, she said.

“All the people coming in (to Constantine’s Restaurant) got to try the chicken, and when they put on their stamp of approval for that particular recipe for chicken, it was named Maryland Fried Chicken for all the people from Maryland,” Costantine said.

The first free-standing MFC opened a few years later in Fern Park and housed the company’s offices.

The Winter Garden franchise opened in 1966, and its earliest owners were Doug Bartholomew and Paul Dion, Costantine said.

She has kept much of the company’s early paperwork explaining how to open a franchise with an initial investment of $17,000, as well as an original Constantine’s Restaurant menu featuring the Maryland Fried Chicken logo, an enlarged postcard depicting a picnic table with buckets and a box of chicken, and a large pullout poster from a Life magazine MFC advertisement from the 1960s.

She also has a copy of a newspaper ad announcing the grand opening of MFC at Constantine’s Restaurant. Fried chicken dinners were $1, a family bucket o’ chicken was $3.95, and a barrel o’ chicken was $5.40.

The ad read: “Maryland Fried Chicken is a tantalizing taste-teasing delicacy, prepared from Al Constantine’s special recipe, consisting of fresh plump tender broilers with special spices and seasoning. Cooked by special equipment sealing in all the juices and natural goodness of the chicken to give you the most delectable taste treat you and your family have ever experienced.”

The Costantine/Constantine families worked at several MFC locations and owned a few of the franchises. Three are still in the family today. Richard’s sons Robert and Tony own franchises in Apopka and Leesburg, and Angelo and Linda’s son Dannie owns the one on East Colonial Drive. Another of Angelo and Linda’s sons, Joe, worked with his mother at the East Colonial location.

“Dannie has been working in it since he was 7 years old,” Costantine said. “And he has a daughter who just turned 10, and she can run the place.”

BEHIND THE COUNTER

Crystal Lovejoy worked for Dion for about 12 years in the late 1990s and early 2000s, and she said he taught her so much. Her family’s roots in MFC run deep — her mother, Teresa Arnold Holton, was pregnant with her when she worked there, and when Lovejoy was an adult, the two worked there together. An aunt, Linda Arnold Bowen, was employed there too.

“(Dion) taught me how to cut chicken with an open saw blade,” Lovejoy said. “At first I was scared. I watched him for like two or three years steady. He had me slice off one piece at a time. After that, I started slinging chicken like there was no tomorrow.”

She remembers Dion hand-cutting his chicken and marinating it for 24 hours before hand-breading it. Lovejoy said on busy days they breaded up to 20 giant trays.

Dion also taught her how to operate — and even repair — the pressure cookers, which were used to keep the moisture inside the chicken.

“Paul was there from 5 o’clock in the morning until when we didn’t need him (any)more, sometimes 8 or 9 at night,” she said. “That’s how passionate he was.”

One of her favorite side dishes was the coleslaw.

“That coleslaw was off the chain,” Lovejoy said. “Everything was handmade, handed-breaded, hand-cut. We even shredded the cabbage.”

Susan Bell enjoyed her time working at Maryland Fried Chicken’s Winter Garden store in 1978. She said coworkers and customers became like family. Her job was to prepare, cook and serve the food.

“I will always remember one night after closing my co-worker and I were cleaning up,” Bell said. “We were taking garbage to the dumpster and an alligator that lived in the lake behind the store came out of the lake looking for his chicken fat that we always tossed to him each night. We should have given him his food before we took out the garbage.

“We started screaming and ran in the bathroom that happened to be outside,” she said. “Our co-workers wondered what was taking so long, and when they looked out the window they saw the alligator and called the game warden, and they came and got it. That thing was so big from all that chicken we fed him.

“Paul Dion was the owner,” Bell said. “He was a great boss. He told us that nothing in the store was worth more than our lives (and) if someone came in to rob us, give them whatever they wanted. We were all one big family looking out for each other.”

Dion’s family worked there too through the years.

Dennise Keene made a comment on a Facebook post last week announcing the closing.

“(It was) our family business — Mom met my stepdad here, Paul and Linda Dion,” Keene wrote. “They owned and operated this (chicken place) for 45 years. My siblings’ and (my) first job, and most of our kids, grandkids started out here. Definitely part of our history and Paul's legacy. We will miss the chicken and (our chicken place). Here's to memories and turning the page.”