Chicken on a Stick: One of Oxford’s Unique Dining Experiences

Courtesy of http://www.thrillist.com

The 21st annual Double Decker Festival, presented by Caterpillar, is currently underway. For many visitors, the festival showcases Oxford as a town that supports the arts, food and music. With nearly two hundred art and food vendors with both local and touring musicians taking to the stage, the event will bring many new and former visitors to Oxford. For one of these food vendors, instead of a tent, they have a gas station to give out their food.

Located on the corner of South Lamar Boulevard and University Avenue, there is a Chevron gas station, and during the day it looks like a everyday, normal gas station. However, at night, locals come to the Chevron for its Chicken on a Stick, the place’s main food attraction and the reason why the gas station is called Chicken on a Stick.

For over thirty years, locals coming from the bars have made their way to the Chevron for its Chicken on a Stick, which is chunks of all-white meat dredged in seasoned flour, fried, and threaded kebab-style onto a wooden stick. Longtime employee Woodrow Daniels believes that the key to Chicken on a Stick’s success is due to the stick being in the middle of the chicken.

“Chicken on a Stick is different than just tenders within itself. Some people when they are eating their Chicken on a Stick, it’s easier simply because for them, they don’t have to touch the meat and actually again, they don’t have to dip too much [sauce]. They get everything together, and when it first started, it had vegetables and Chicken on a Stick, but due to the demand of just chicken, now they brought it down to just chicken, which really is a good deal actually,” said Daniels.

At less than $4.00 per chicken, Chicken on a Stick is a cheap late night snack that is the size of around four regular sized chicken strips. The Chevron also sells other types of items, including egg rolls, pizza sticks, and potato logs just to name a few.

For University of Mississippi students like Matt Haughey, he believes that the success of Chicken on a Stick comes from its location, as it is only a few blocks from the Square, and its friendly atmosphere.

“I’ve met a lot of people from Chicken on a Stick…a lot of people I’m friends with now we’ve either met at the bars and come here or we’ve met here…and everyone here is in a good mood,” said Haughey.

Websites, including Southern Living, have written articles about Chicken on a Stick, and its popularity seems to only increase every year. For a lot people including Haughey, they learned about the gas station’s food through word of mouth, and Daniels attests to that.

“As long as the University stays here and people still coming through all walks of life and one tells another about how good it is, and everybody wants to try it, even family members that come here with people that are alumni and actually people that attend this college, now their family members come here, and the first thing they tell them is about Chicken on a Stick. They want them to try it. You have to try the Chicken on a Stick and once they try it, then they going to come back,” Daniels said.

Logan Frost is a broadcast journalism major at Meek School of Journalism and New Media. He can be reached at lcfrost@go.olemiss.edu.

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