Flavor Flav opens fried chicken restaurant in Iowa
Flavor Flav is looking to "blow up your taste buds, man."
January 24th, 2011
09:31 PM ET

Flavor Flav opens fried chicken restaurant in Iowa

Look out, Colonel Sanders. Flavor Flav has a fried chicken restaurant, and he's coming for you - starting in a small Iowa city.

The Public Enemy rapper and reality TV star opened Flav's Fried Chicken in Clinton, Iowa, on Monday with a business partner he met through a connection in Las Vegas, the Clinton Herald reported.

"My chicken ain't no joke. I ain't scared to go up against the Colonel, tastewise," Flav said, referring to chicken giant KFC, in a YouTube video of him frying chicken at Monday's opening.

The sight of Flav cooking at his own restaurant apparently won't be a one-time thing. He told the newspaper he intends to work at the Clinton location now and then to help draw customers. (Good news for the fledgling operation: If his trademark attire is any indication, he should have no trouble arriving to work on time.)

"You're going to find me in here working. … You're going to catch me in here seasoning up my chicken, flouring up my chicken, frying up my chicken. And not only that, but coming out here and serving my chicken to people," he said.

The idea for the venture came after Flav befriended Las Vegas restaurateur Peter Cimino. Flav cooked Cimino some chicken, and Cimino, duly impressed, had Flav sell his chicken wings at Mama Cimino's Pizza in Las Vegas, the rapper told northern Illinois news site SaukValley.com.

It was Cimino's brother, Clinton restaurateur Nick Cimino, who suggested he and Flav open a fried chicken restaurant in the Iowa city of roughly 26,000 people.

"He said, 'You know what, Flav? … What I want to do, I want to build you your first restaurant.' I'm like, 'Are you serious?' He's like, 'Yo, I’m dead serious, man. I’m going to go home, I'm going to build your first FFC restaurant,'" he told SaukValley.com.

Nick Cimino bought a building next to his own restaurant and got it ready for Monday’s opening, the Clinton Herald reported last week.

Flav, a 51-year-old New York native, told the newspaper he's developed his own special fried chicken recipe over the years, having grown up in a family that owned a diner and having attended cooking school in the late 1970s.

His chicken has "that deep down southern fried chicken" taste, and also has "some crisp going on up in there," he said.

"The taste … will blow up your taste buds, man," Flav told the Clinton Herald in an interview posted on YouTube.

Flav, who starred in the VH1 reality series "The Surreal Life" and "Flavor of Love," said he'll consider opening more FFCs after getting this one under way.

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Filed under: Celebrity • Food • Iowa • Music • Showbiz
soundoff (305 Responses)
  1. ArnoldD

    I don't eat chicken but sure like the bone.

    January 25, 2011 at 8:44 am | Report abuse |
    • CT

      Is that you, Mary Moon?

      January 25, 2011 at 12:23 pm | Report abuse |
  2. aj

    you can not be serious.

    January 25, 2011 at 8:46 am | Report abuse |
    • Jake

      I am serious. And don't call me Shirley.

      January 25, 2011 at 10:15 am | Report abuse |
  3. emma chavis

    Why not promote or get into the business of eating healthy. I wonder who is really behind this effort?

    January 25, 2011 at 8:47 am | Report abuse |
    • Unknown

      It was clearly his brother's idea... Had it been a healthy eating venture It would clearly had been someone else's idea.

      January 25, 2011 at 9:34 am | Report abuse |
    • Dennis

      Tyson Foods...Shh Its a conspiracy to get a moron to sell chicken.

      January 25, 2011 at 12:07 pm | Report abuse |
    • Orion

      CRIPES, go eat your tofu somewhere else. Tree-huggin' whale-humpers like to ruin a good time...

      January 25, 2011 at 1:42 pm | Report abuse |
    • tim

      i wish i was rich growing up so i could eat hummus and kimchi all of the time, rather than gross fried chicken.

      gimme a break, fried chicken is just about the greatest food on the planet. guess who's behind this? a guy who likes to make chicken. just because its not pseudo-european and doesn't cost an arm and a leg doesn't mean its evil.

      February 23, 2011 at 9:09 pm | Report abuse |
  4. Emma

    Such poor images. Promoting sterotypes!

    January 25, 2011 at 8:49 am | Report abuse |
    • Unknown

      Stereo type of what? That black people like chicken? *rolls eyes* It's time to ignore that since the facts are EVERYONE LOVES FRIED CHICKEN.

      January 25, 2011 at 9:17 am | Report abuse |
    • Vegan

      I actually don't like fried chicken since, well, I don't eat meat.

      January 25, 2011 at 12:37 pm | Report abuse |
    • mike

      How dare he like fried chicken!

      Why should people hide from what they love? Just so the hyper-sensitive PC-types feel better?

      Stereotypes don't matter so much as the intentions of those applying them. When you're telling people how to live their lives in order to hide from a silly stereotype, you're as oppressive as any bigot.

      January 25, 2011 at 5:35 pm | Report abuse |
  5. ROCKWOOD

    I think its great!!!! Crazy fool.....gotta give him credit though!!!!

    January 25, 2011 at 8:51 am | Report abuse |
  6. Ozco

    I hope his secret ingredient doesn't include his flavor of love.

    January 25, 2011 at 8:51 am | Report abuse |
    • JSP

      OH SNIZAP!

      January 25, 2011 at 3:22 pm | Report abuse |
  7. ken

    hey they laughed at magic johnson when he started magic johnson theaters...this is the worst kind of black person why?cuz he represents progress! YEAH BOYEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE! Make that $$$$$$$$$$$$ Flav!

    January 25, 2011 at 8:56 am | Report abuse |
  8. phil

    and they say don't stereotype...

    January 25, 2011 at 9:03 am | Report abuse |
    • tmichelle72

      "they"?

      January 25, 2011 at 9:27 am | Report abuse |
    • jimmy

      Yes. They. As in, other people. As in, "they (other people) say not to stereotype people". Not the racist "they" as in, they always do so and so. Look for racism and you will find it everywhere, even places it doesn't exist.

      January 25, 2011 at 9:46 am | Report abuse |
  9. Loud Noises

    I just hope he does NOT hire Hottie (aka Schatar Jackson) to be a cook. I am remembering that episode where she tried to cook chicken for his mother. LOL

    January 25, 2011 at 9:06 am | Report abuse |
  10. john sonpull

    also on the menu....Terminator X-tra thick shakes and Chuck D-licious biscuits and gravy...

    January 25, 2011 at 9:07 am | Report abuse |
  11. Betty

    FFC-what a concept, you go boy!

    January 25, 2011 at 9:15 am | Report abuse |
  12. Willie12345

    Where is the Department of Health when you really need them?

    January 25, 2011 at 9:21 am | Report abuse |
    • Perryboy

      Hey Willie12345!!! You're just jealous.

      January 25, 2011 at 10:35 am | Report abuse |
    • JSP

      As high-profile as the restaurant is, it's a safe bet that the cleanliness standards are pretty high. Nice try though, little willie.

      January 25, 2011 at 3:25 pm | Report abuse |
    • gretchen

      How very true, Willie. This idiot needs to take off his dumb clocks, baseball cap, and pull his hair back or put a hairnet on;. I hope he's wearing gloves when he "cooks".

      January 25, 2011 at 3:45 pm | Report abuse |
    • my2cents

      @gretchen–Emeril doesn't wear gloves when he cooks, on TV, on front of a live audience, some of whom then get to eat the food. Do you complain about that too?

      January 25, 2011 at 5:31 pm | Report abuse |
  13. Any loss of human space exploration

    I am wondering if he will get some English lessons?

    January 25, 2011 at 9:21 am | Report abuse |
    • Joe

      I'm wondering if you will get some English lessons. Jamming a question mark at the end of a statement does not automatically make it a question. Hopefully this makes sense to you? I have doubts about your ability to understand my point?

      January 25, 2011 at 9:27 am | Report abuse |
    • Rejeana

      LOL @ Joe.....now that is funny..especiialy adding the ? after your last statement.

      January 25, 2011 at 12:37 pm | Report abuse |
    • mike

      LOL. People are so stupid!!

      January 25, 2011 at 3:35 pm | Report abuse |
    • mike

      LOL?

      January 25, 2011 at 5:38 pm | Report abuse |
    • Eva

      Joe u had me in tears over this one"?" You are too darn funny LOL

      January 25, 2011 at 9:45 pm | Report abuse |
    • Eva

      LOLOL?

      January 25, 2011 at 9:47 pm | Report abuse |
  14. RIGHT RIGHT

    And the minstrel show of Flavor Flav continues. Glad he's doing something productive, though.

    January 25, 2011 at 9:22 am | Report abuse |
  15. THX

    His description of it sounds good. I'd try it.

    January 25, 2011 at 9:26 am | Report abuse |
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