White Fence Farm Pulls Out of Takeout Chicken Business

While the original restaurant is going strong, the takeout locations that opened over the last few years are all closed.

By Westword Staff

February 14, 2018

Image: Gone is the takeout chicken in several Denver neighborhoods.

Gone is the takeout chicken in several Denver neighborhoods. Westword

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In 2014, White Fence Farm seemed like a relic of the past, a quaint bit of nostalgia lurking in the suburbs where longtime Denverites toted their kids to give them a taste of their own childhoods. That is, until late that year, when Craig Caldwell and Tom Piercy bought the forty-year-old fried-chicken farm from its original owner, Charlie Wilson. Soon after, they hatched plans not only to make the White Fence Farm name relevant again in the Denver dining scene, but to expand into new neighborhoods with a string of fast-casual outlets.

Those came in rapid succession, starting with the first in Green Valley Ranch; outposts in Arvada and Westminster, on Colorado Boulevard and in Denver's hip Capitol Hill neighborhood soon followed. Compact versions also sprang up at the Pepsi Center and Elitch Gardens. But just as quickly as they blossomed, the 2.0 versions disappeared; the last of the fast-casual White Fence Farms locations recently closed in Capitol Hill.

While the Pepsi Center fried-chicken counter is still up and running and the Elitch Gardens location will continue to provide good cluck for the buck when the amusement park opens for the season, you'll have to return to the original White Fence Farm at 6263 West Jewell Avenue for a true taste of those wondrous corn fritters, the old-fashioned fried chicken — and maybe some heavy petting in the farmyard.

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