When this post was originally written, it was taken about five months after their 2022 fire and it wasn't clear if the restaurant would ever reopen or not. (Good thing I didn't bet real money against it). It's quite difficult to tell what the history of the Chicken Oil Company actually is. It did appear to be a genuine gas station at one time, dating back to the 1950s, and apparently, owned by Joe Ferreri of the nearby Triangle Drive-In. This newspaper ad suggests that it was built (along with another gas station) as a companion operation to Ferreri's restaurant operations (Sugar 'N Spice was Ferreri's other restaurant). The Amlico name
By the mid-1970s it was known as "Larry's Key Service Station", but this was soon purchased and expanded by Don Ganter into Chicken Oil Company, featuring a bar with hamburgers and beer. Gasoline was still an option but at some point this was discontinued and turned into another expansion of the restaurant. While its College Station counterpart of the same ownership, Dixie Chicken continued to focused on beer, Chicken Oil Company became known for its hamburgers and other menu items. In the 1990s, the nearby "Charcoal Room" building (originally built as part of Ferreri's Triangle Drive-In) was incorporated as a party room on the property.
On the afternoon of April 3, 2022, the restaurant suffered a devastating kitchen fire, which, although sparing the building from total disaster (the fate of Olive Garden and later, Harvey Washbanger's), caused significant damage to the restaurant. The insides of the building were photographed a few days after the fire1. You can see that the kitchen areas were trashed but the dining room, while suffering extensive smoke damage, looks salvageable. For several years, Chicken Oil sat idle; this is when the pictures were taken, but eventually renovation started. Parts of the west side of the building were demolished to conform to Bryan's right of way (these were the most heavily damaged parts anyway) and the parking lot was finally rebuilt from the gravel lot it was before.
As a result, the "new" Chicken Oil looks substantially different from the old version. As you can see in this X post (archived version here) the kitchen and the dining room seem to have effectively switched places. On August 4, 2025, the restaurant reopened. Does it still hold up to its pre-2022 reputation? Well, the jury's still out on that one.
1. This was originally hosted on YouTube, but I saved a local copy. Source is lost, sorry!
UPDATE 08-06-2025: Extensive rewrite of post incorporating previous updates and to have less of a past tense. Previous updates archived.
