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Wednesday, January 21, 2015

English's Chicken auction in Ocean City includes rare Coastal Highway land

The auction of English's Chicken, an Eastern Shore landmark, will give the buyer not only its Ocean City restaurant but also a vacant lot that is zoned for retail, restaurant or even residential use.

Daniel M. Billig, of A.J. Billig & Co. Auctioneers, said the Feb. 20 auction is a rare opportunity for a buyer to acquire property — a little more than a half acre — on Coastal Highway in the heart of Ocean City. English's Chicken sits at the northeast corner of Philadelphia Avenue and 15th Street one block west of the boardwalk. Philadelphia, which is Maryland 528, turns into Coastal Highway.

English's owners are turning their focus to other ways to distribute their popular chicken and sweet potato biscuits, Billig said. But the family, which opened English's in Salisbury in 1937, will retain the original restaurant about 19 miles from Ocean City. The Ocean City restaurant opened in 1963.

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9 comments:

Anonymous said...

I didn't know there was an original English's still open.

Anonymous said...

There was one in Salisbury called Bay Country but I heard it just closed last week

Anonymous said...

Yes, that Wayne Strausburg(Culver's boy) used to be the CEO of it.

Anonymous said...

Bay Country was after the original English's Salisbury locations closed up, they served English's recipe chicken. Not sure where the original location they refer to is, but Salisbury is definitely further away from OC location than 19 miles.

Anonymous said...

4:00 hardly think that Wayne S. is "Culver's boy", more like Pollitt, Creamer, Mackes, Matt Holloway boy that needs to be replaced ASAP. If Culver doesn't do that, he will lose all credibility. People voted for change. Not seeing much yet where it counts.

Anonymous said...

So much for the Director of Administration having any chops in economic development. ROFLMAO

Anonymous said...

Yes, this is an original Englishs location on the coastal highway and I believe it was also used as a pancake house at one time. It is on the other side of the street from the firehouse but around that location. So sad to see all the old landmarks bite the dust. Englishs in Salisbury was next to Giant where Walgreens is now and they had the best bakery in the day. The other location in salisbury is across from the DPL location where the car dealership is now. They were both in the shape of a silver trailer diner car from back in the day and then later added onto at each location. I have never been in Bay Country so I have no idea if the chicken was the same.

Anonymous said...

Joe,
You might get George Chevallier to fact check this story. I believe the original English's dining car was located downtown Salisbury. There's a brick building there now but the dining car was on the property next to where Mojo's currently is. North and South Salisbury, Westover, Ocean City, Willards and Salisbury Mall locations came later. There was also the main office and commissary on South Division St. Their popular catering business operated from that location run by Mr. Marion Barkley. The company was purchased in the 70's by Fairlanes located in Baltimore (bowling alleys). The restaurants expanded to Cambridge, Pocomoke,Annapolis, College Park, Wilmington, Del., New Castle, and Seaford. There was also an attempt to compete with pizza delivery services. The company bought several custom build trucks, with onboard ovens that ran from the bake shop on South Salisbury Blvd and then from a drive-in located on Rt. 50 between Salisbury and Hebron. Now it's all just history.

Anonymous said...

Info on original English's: http://dinerhunter.com/2014/05/24/english-diner-no-1-salisbury-md/