Much Better Late than Never!

In recent years we have grown used to and look forward to a visit by Dawn Marie immediately after Christmas.  She would either pop in from Miami or directly from some other location she was visiting in her 200,000 plus annual miles of business related air travel. 

This year was different… Due to happenings and changes in the company she works for, she had to put off our visit until she could catch her breath and find a couple of down days.  In the interim she sent us this photo of her wearing angel wings.

Right at Christmas, she sent us another photo…this one with her Santa hat!  As the operations integration officer with her company, she was still running fast.

Finally, on January 10^th, Dawn Marie joined us for a long weekend.  Our neighbor Sherry took these 3 photos of Dawn, yours truly and Laurie.  We thought that this first one came out very nicely...

I like this photo a lot…mainly because I’m obviously the subject of ‘blind adoration’!

I can’t decide if I like the ‘adoration’ photo or this one better…where I was on the receiving end of a bit of lovin’!  More than likely, the ladies both just humored the old guy…

Dawn had flown directly into Knoxville’s McGhee Tyson Airport, about a 45 minute drive from our house.  However she left town via Chattanooga’s airport…about an hour and 20 minutes from home.  It was a short but relaxing visit!

After dropping Dawn off at the airport, Laurie and I decided to take advantage of being in Chattanooga by picking up our dinner to go from Champy’s Famous Fried Chicken.  We’ve eaten a couple of times at their downtown location but this was our first visit to the north side restaurant on Lee Highway.

This turned out to be the backside of the restaurant.  It has character, that’s for sure!  I decided that I should go around to the front to take another photo given how decrepit looking this side was…

So much for a more upscale classy look!  The front of the restaurant is decidedly as down-home and dive shack looking as the back was… Of course this is part of the theme at Champy’s.  Their locations are designed to look like a shack that’s been assembled using whatever was on hand, creating a down-home ‘chicken shack’ atmosphere.  In fairness, those whitish blank walls are the winter season coverings for the outdoor dining area.

So this is what the inside of the Chattanooga north side Champy’s Famous Fried Chicken shack/restaurant looks like.  The first photo shows the inside dining area with all its glitz and miscellaneous décor.  The second picture shows the bar and the indoor/outdoor dining space in its cold weather mode. 

We ordered a bunch of chicken to take out for dinner and extra meals to follow.  By the time I remembered to take a photo, these 2 chicken thighs and one breast were all we had left.  We had ordered Champy’s 12-Piece Family Snack…and here’s where we ran into problems. 

We told our server that we didn’t want any legs…and that she should substitute thighs in their place.  So we should have had 3 breasts, 3 wings and 6 thighs in our take home pack.  Nope!  I was up-charged 30 cents each for the 3 thigh substitution…which was expected. (Total $25.89) But, when we got home we discovered that we had 1 breast, 3 legs, 3 wings and 5 thighs.  I don’t like not getting what I paid for...and worst yet, also getting what I didn’t want!

In any case, we now know that we prefer Gus’s World Famous Fried Chicken in Knoxville…and that restaurant is about 20 minutes closer to our home.  We have also discovered that the Ingles Supermarket kitchen in nearby Lenoir City Tennessee serves some very nice and juicy fried chicken…large pieces too!

Champy’s chicken is good, certainly better than most, and the funky atmosphere does add interest.  Try it yourself and see what you think.  This Champy’s Famous Fried Chicken restaurant is located at 6925 Lee Highway in Chattanooga Tennessee.  Phone: 423-803-2800.  The company’s website is at http://champyschicken.com/.

Just click on any of the photos to enlarge them…

Thanks for stopping by for a visit!

Take Care, Big Daddy Dave