Channel-19 highlights festival

By Tyler Whittamore, Staff Writer

Canoefest and the Chicken Trail has always been a huge event for lots of people in the Whitewater Valley, but this year’s events were even bigger after getting coverage from the local Fox 19 Morning News team.

The Chicken Trail is a network made up of 40 different restaurants. Anyone who eats fried chicken at enough of these establishments is automatically qualified to participate as a judge in the Great Chicken Fry-Off at Canoefest.

The hunt for the best chicken in the area was an opportunity that the Fox 19 team could not turn down. The crew arrived in Brookville Wednesday, June 27, led by Morning News co-anchor, Sheila Gray

“We have this idea at the station to show people things that are off the beaten path,” Gray said, “things around the tri-state they haven’t heard of before.”

“A couple of summers ago, some folks from the Chicken Trail came on (the show) and fried chicken to promote Canoefest, and I’ve always wanted to come out here ever since because the chicken was so good,” she added.

The team of Gray, meteorologists Frank Marzullo and Katy Morgan, traffic reporter Stephanie Woods, and reporters Dan Wells and Brad Underwood, traveled from one Trail station to the next, sampling some of the finest fried chicken in Franklin County.

The first two stops were in Brookville, at the Dairy Cottage and the Pioneer, followed by a trip to the Cedar Grove Tavern, where the group took time out for some extracurricular bowling.

The city of Brookville itself made quite an impression on Gray.

“It reminds me so much of the little town I grew up in (Sydney, OH) and I have fallen in love with it already,” she said, “and the chicken is fantastic.”

It may have been the news crew’s first time on the Chicken Trail, but they prepared for it like veterans who know what they are doing.

“We all fasted so we would be ready to eat a lot of chicken and stop at a few places,” said Gray, “because we didn’t just want to eat at one place.”

Fox19 Morning News airs Monday through Friday, 4:30 a.m. - 9 a.m.