Do you remember the Hyland Park strip mall on No. 3 Road near Cook Road?
Among the tenants at the former one-stop-shop strip mall was Ernie's Take Home, a Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC) franchisee.
According to a blog post by the Friends of Richmond Archives, Nat Bailey was offered the B.C. franchise for KFC in the 1950s.
"While he was worried that the brand might compete with his White Spot chain, which also offered chicken dishes on the menu, his partners convinced him that the product was different enough to not cause any issues," reads the post.
A company named Ernie's Fine Foods, named after Bailey's friend and business partner leading the new enterprise Ernie M. Creamer, was established.
This was followed by the opening of stores named Ernie's Take Home across B.C. to sell KFC chicken.
The Richmond store opened at Hyland Park Shopping Centre in 1965 and, according to an ad in the Richmond Review in 1965, sold buckets of KFC at $3.75 per bucket.
"Lots for five to seven hungry shoppers," reads the ad.
Ernie's was also known for its offerings of potato salad, macaroni salad, coleslaw and biscuits, unlike other KFC franchises.
According to the Friends of the Richmond Archives, Ernie's was sold to General Foods in 1968 along with Nat Bailey's other restaurant businesses and the Hyland Park location was closed in the early 1970s.
Ernie's reopened in Richmond in the form of a drive-in restaurant at 8100 Anderson Road and later rebranded to KFC in 1984, changing its address to 8111 Granville Avenue. A sign with a bucket of chicken was installed at the location.
KFC also opened a second location at Seafair Shopping Centre in the same year.
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