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Info
Johnnie's Dog House owner Mark Raphaelson says he's bringing back a taste from his childhood
a tasty, lightly-battered fried chicken that holds a special place in Delaware's culinary history
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Raphaelson was a huge fan of the original Walt's Flavor Crisp
an iconic take-out chicken shop in the 500 block of Vandever Ave. in Wilmington's Northeast neighborhood. It closed a few years after the 2011 death of longtime owner Harry W. Sheppard
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Raphaelson used to visit the successful shop with his father
who ran a scrapyard in the city's Southbridge section. Earlier this year, he decided to add fried chicken to his own business Johnnie's Dog House at 3401 Concord Pike near Talleyville, which he has rebranded as Johnnie's Dog House and Chicken Shack
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At Johnnie's, Robert Lively, a former cook at the flagship Walt's Flavor Crisp
has recreated the fried chicken that Delawareans have loved since the early 1970s, Raphaelson says
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Raphaelson, who has been hunting down how to make Walt's fried chicken for two years
is convinced it is the same flavor
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I've been eating Walt's chicken since I was a kid.
Basically, I looked from New York to North Carolina. I've tried fried chicken everywhere. The best fried chicken is from Walt's on Vandever Avenue
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Johnnie's customer Vic Rash believes Raphaelson has gotten the recipe right.
"The chicken is really good. I eat chicken all the time. Good job", he says as he stands in the Concord Pike eatery's dining room and pats Raphaelson on the back
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But, the late Harry W. Sheppard's wife and business partner Symanthia Lynch-Sheppard
who has not tasted Johnnie's chicken but says she has heard from customers who have purchased it, is adamant this is not the original recipe
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"It's not Walt's", she says.
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Lynch-Sheppard says anyone who wants Walt's Chicken should visit Walt's Flavor Crisp Chicken Express at 103 N. Lincoln St.
a 13-year-old take-out business near Little Italy that had been blessed by Sheppard. Or they should call her operation, Walt's Flavor Crisp Chicken Catering, on Wilmington's Lancaster Avenue. These are the only places, she says, that offer the original Walt's chicken
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After trying chicken from both Johnnie's Dog House and Chicken Shack and Walt's Flavor Crisp Chicken Express
to me, the taste, crispy brown look and seasonings seem very similar. Flecks of black pepper can be seen in both versions. However, the skin of the chicken from Walt's Flavor Crisp Chicken Express seemed slightly more crisp than Johnnie's, while the chicken meat from Johnnie's was a little more juicy
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Still, taste is subjective, so you be the judge.
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For about 40 years, Walt's Flavor Crisp at the corner of Vandever Avenue and Pine Street thrived in an area of Wilmington that is known more for its drug problems than for its trendy cuisine.
City residents and suburbanites alike lined up for boxes of fried chicken. The number of customers visiting daily proved that great cooking can sometimes triumph over location, location, location
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It's a perception more than the reality
owner Harry Sheppard told The News Journal in 2008, when asked about the neighborhood's unsavory reputation. "I tell everybody as long as you don't pat nobody on the butt and you mind your own business, people are people."
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Since 1973, Walt's has been run by Sheppard
family members and other longtime employees. The business moved across from its original corner store site to its Vandever Avenue location in 1978. The name Walt's comes from Sheppard's former partner, Walter Samuels. But, after the men parted ways, Sheppard never felt the need to change the name. Customers often called him "Mr. Walt."
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Walt's buzzed at lunchtime and, especially, during the summer months.
Customers often lined up outside patiently waiting their turn to order. Word-of-mouth about the uncommonly good flavor was always the shop's best advertising
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Over the years, numerous News Journal restaurant critics chose Walt's as the best fried chicken in northern Delaware.
The chicken, known for its moist meatiness, had thin and crispy skin and traces of spice and black pepper
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Sheppard once told The News Journal he came up with the chicken recipe by adapting his grandmother Anna Brown's technique for cooking rabbit.
Yet, when pushed for more details, Sheppard turned coy
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"The chicken is marinated before it is cooked", he said.
The types of spices used were a well-kept Walt's secret
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"Yeah, we add a little bit", is all Sheppard would say.
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Sheppard, 84, died Aug. 24, 2011, at St. Francis Hospital.
In 2015, his Vandever Avenue shop was demolished to make way for four Wilmington Housing Partnership townhouses. On Wednesday at 10 a.m., a ground-breaking is taking place for construction of the townhomes to be known as "Walt's Way." His wife and business partner Lynch-Sheppard says the street in the front of the townhouses is being renamed for Sheppard
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Sheppard didn't die with his recipe.
He shared it at least eight years before his death. Since 2003, Larry Fletcher has owned and operated Walt's Flavor Crisp Chicken Express at 103 N. Lincoln St. in Wilmington. Fletcher, a former general manager at Walt's Flavor Crisp, considered Sheppard his mentor. Sheppard gave Fletcher and his wife, Beverly, his blessing to open Walt's Flavor Chicken Express. They offer the same kind of fried chicken as the original Walt's along with many of the side dishes
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After her husband's death, Lynch-Sheppard also vowed to continue making the much-lauded fried chicken.
In 2014, she decided to move the business from its Vandever Avenue location because the neighborhood where the shop was located had continued to decline
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It has been a real struggle
We really did not have the walk-in traffic anymore, she told The News Journal in 2014. "We had to make a change." Lynch-Sheppard now runs the Walt's Flavor Crisp chicken catering operation in the Westside Plaza strip shopping center at 2800 Lancaster Ave
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Lynch-Sheppard says "numerous others" have tried to recreate her husband's fried chicken.
While she acknowledges one of the former Walt's cooks does work at Johnnie's, she doesn't believe they're using the same recipe that Sheppard used
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"My husband knew that you don't share your recipe", she says.
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Earlier this year, restaurant consultants Baum + Whiteman predicted that an obsession over fried chicken would become even more intense in 2016.
And that does indeed seem to be true in Delaware. One of the best places to find it in the state is at Lettie's Kitchen in Hockessin, where it's known as broaster chicken. Other new eateries, such as Oldbanks Craft Bistro in Wilmington's Trolley Square and the new Jimmy's Grille in Rehoboth Beach, are serving fried chicken
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At Johnnie's Dog House and Chicken Shack
chicken is available by the piece, dinner box or by the bucket. The shack also has collard greens, rice and beans, mac and cheese and baked beans
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Raphaelson says making fried chicken like Walt's on Vandever Avenue is a process.
"The marinade is super potent and the breading is potent. The timing of everything has to be exact. It's so sensitive", he says of the recipe he uses
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While he does not call his fried chicken Walt's in any advertising or on restaurant signs or menus
he says he has gotten "tremendous response" on the taste
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It's distinctive. People know it.
Around here, word travels fast. Friends have commented, 'It tastes like Walt's
