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Published on 05/20/1996 All articles from this issue

Kentucky Fried Chicken restaurant closing doors in Los Altos

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By Clyde Noel / Town Crier Staff Writer

Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC), a landmarkon Main Street in Los Altos since 1965, will close its doors June30.

"The store on Main Street is an old location that needs amajor renovation to stay in the restaurant business," saidKaren Gutke, property manager for the Harman Management Group."In today's market we need to be on El Camino Real or someplacewhere there will be more traffic."

When the store opened 31 years ago, Los Altos was a much smallerarea, but the business potential was promising with only 20 KFCstores in California at the time. The building was originallya grocery market.

"We have 264 stores in our franchise operation and the LosAltos restaurant is either the second or third from the bottomin volume," Gutke said. "We're not looking aggressivelyfor another store in Los Altos, but we have our eyes open in casea satisfactory location is available."

Gutke said another reason for the closing is the lack of parkingplaces. The city bought the Neilsen's Martinizing Dry Cleaningbuilding last year and KFC stood to lose parking spaces to thecity. "We know the city wants to use this corner as the gatewayto the city so we decided to make our move now," she said.

Kentucky Fried Chicken Corp. is owned by Pepsi Cola Corp. andall the retail outlets in Northern California are owned by HarmanManagement Corporation. They also franchise operations throughoutthe nation.

Pete and Arline Harman started their first restaurant in SaltLake City called The Do Drop Inn. That same year, they attendeda restaurant short course in Chicago and met Col. Harland Sanders.Pete and the Colonel struck up a lifelong friendship and PeteHarman began to franchise KFC restaurants.

When the Colonel sold Kentucky Fried Chicken to Kentucky Gov.John Y. Brown in the 1960s, Sanders asked Harman what territoryhe wanted for his franchise area. He selected California. Harmanthen selected Los Altos to reside and the Harman Management Corp.headquarters was located at 199 First St. for years. Harman andhis wife now live in Los Altos Hills.

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