Pittsburg, Kansas · Founded 1971
Founded in 1971 by grandchildren of Chicken Annie and Chicken Mary, Pichler's is an independent bridge between Crawford County's rival chicken-house families.
Pichler's Chicken Annie's opened south of Pittsburg, Kansas, in 1971, founded by Anthony Pichler and Donna Zerngast Pichler. Anthony was the grandson of Ann Pichler, who started Chicken Annie's Original in 1934, while Donna was the granddaughter of Mary Zerngast, the founder associated with Chicken Mary's. Their restaurant connects the two famous Crawford County chicken-house families, but it operates as an independent business rather than a branch of Chicken Annie's Original.
Anthony Pichler, grandson of Chicken Annie's founder Ann Pichler, and Donna Zerngast, granddaughter of Chicken Mary's founder Mary Zerngast, married. The reviewed sources support the family connection but do not establish an exact marriage date.
Source: Kansas Sampler Foundation, '8 Wonders of Kansas Cuisine: Crawford County Fried Chicken'; Explore Crawford County, 'Home to six of the oldest chicken houses in Kansas'; Big Kansas Road Trip 2022 program guide.
Anthony and Donna Pichler opened Pichler's Chicken Annie's south of Pittsburg as an independent restaurant with a menu familiar to customers of Chicken Annie's Original.
Source: Wichita Eagle, 'A fried chicken tour of Southeast Kansas,' October 25, 2019; Chicken Annie's of Girard, History page.
The Wichita Eagle described Pichler's as a 1971 Crawford County chicken house started by the grandchildren of the Chicken Annie's and Chicken Mary's founders and noted that it was not affiliated with Chicken Annie's Original.
Source: Wichita Eagle, 'A fried chicken tour of Southeast Kansas,' October 25, 2019.
Pichler's Chicken Annie's official site listed current dinner-focused hours and its address at 1271 S 220th Street in Pittsburg.
Source: Pichler's Chicken Annie's official website and Contact page, accessed September 10, 2026.
Every claim gets rated. A business's own website can never earn "documented."
The Wichita Eagle, regional chicken-house histories, and the Big Kansas Road Trip guide identify Anthony Pichler as Ann Pichler's grandson and Donna Zerngast as Mary Zerngast's granddaughter. The sources agree that the couple opened Pichler's Chicken Annie's together as a separate restaurant.
The Wichita Eagle lists 1971 as the restaurant's founding year, and Chicken Annie's of Girard history places its establishment in the early 1970s after Carl and Rosemary Pichler left Chicken Annie's Original to help Anthony establish it. An original business registration, opening advertisement, or license record has not been reviewed.
The restaurants share family history, but the Wichita Eagle explicitly reports that Pichler's is not affiliated with Chicken Annie's Original. It should be described as an independent restaurant founded by Ann Pichler's grandson, not as a branch, franchise, or corporate offshoot.
The sources reviewed establish the founders' family relationship and say Pichler's menu will be familiar to people who know Chicken Annie's Original. They do not document a deliberate combination of recipes, shared secret methods, or a Chicken Mary's recipe contribution to the restaurant's food.
The restaurant's origin story is inseparable from the Pichler and Zerngast families, but the current official site and reviewed reporting do not identify a present owner or operating family member. The historical family connection should remain visible without asserting current ownership.
Pichler's was founded in 1971, decades after Chicken Annie's Original began serving chicken dinners in 1934. It is a later independent member of the Crawford County chicken-house tradition and cannot hold the first-place title.
Pichler's Chicken Annie's was founded in 1970 or 1973.
The Wichita Eagle lists Pichler's Chicken Annie's as founded in 1971. Other regional history places its creation in the early 1970s, but no source reviewed supports a 1973 formal opening.
Source: Wichita Eagle, 'A fried chicken tour of Southeast Kansas,' October 25, 2019; Chicken Annie's of Girard, History page.
Pichler's Chicken Annie's is a branch or affiliated location of Chicken Annie's Original.
Pichler's shares family lineage with Chicken Annie's Original through founder Anthony Pichler, but it is an independent restaurant. The Wichita Eagle explicitly reports that it is not affiliated with Chicken Annie's Original.
Source: Wichita Eagle, 'A fried chicken tour of Southeast Kansas,' October 25, 2019.
Pichler's combines secret recipes from Chicken Annie's and Chicken Mary's.
The founders connect the two families, but the reviewed record does not document a shared or combined secret recipe. Reporting says the menu is familiar to customers of Chicken Annie's Original, not that it reproduces both restaurants' recipes.
Source: Wichita Eagle, 'A fried chicken tour of Southeast Kansas,' October 25, 2019; Pichler's Chicken Annie's official menu page.
Pichler's succeeded by creating its own destination from an unusually strong family story without relying on a formal franchise relationship. The restaurant brought Anthony Pichler's Chicken Annie's lineage and Donna Zerngast Pichler's Chicken Mary's lineage together at a new south Pittsburg location, letting customers experience one of the region's defining chicken-house traditions outside the original Yale mining-camp cluster. Its value to the register is not that it is the first or oldest chicken house, but that it makes the region's famously adversarial food history more complicated: the two rival families became family.
Pichler's Chicken Annie's was founded in 1971 south of Pittsburg, Kansas, by Anthony Pichler and Donna Zerngast Pichler. Anthony was Ann Pichler's grandson from Chicken Annie's Original, and Donna was Mary Zerngast's granddaughter from Chicken Mary's. Their marriage connected the two rival chicken-house families, but their restaurant operates independently from Chicken Annie's Original.
No. Pichler's Chicken Annie's was founded in 1971 and is not Kansas's oldest restaurant. It also is not the first Crawford County chicken house: Chicken Annie's Original traces its chicken dinners to 1934, and Chicken Mary's publicly uses 1942 as its founding year.
Yes, through the Pichler family. Pichler's Chicken Annie's was founded by Anthony Pichler, the grandson of Chicken Annie's Original founder Ann Pichler. However, it is not an affiliated branch, franchise, or corporate extension of Chicken Annie's Original; it is an independent restaurant.
Pichler's is connected to Chicken Mary's through co-founder Donna Zerngast Pichler, the granddaughter of Chicken Mary's founder Mary Zerngast. Donna married Anthony Pichler, Ann Pichler's grandson, and the two founded Pichler's Chicken Annie's in 1971.
The Wichita Eagle says Pichler's menu will be familiar to people who know Chicken Annie's Original, but the reviewed sources do not establish that it uses the exact same recipe or that its food combines the original Chicken Annie's and Chicken Mary's recipes. The relationship is documented; the exact recipe lineage is not.
1271 S 220th St, Pittsburg, KS 66762
(620) 232-9260
The official site lists dinner service Tuesday through Friday from 4 p.m. to 8:30 p.m., Saturday from 4 p.m. to 9 p.m., and Sunday from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m.; it is closed Mondays. Confirm current hours and carryout availability before visiting.