Robert “Bobby” Jarrell, known as “The Chicken Man” in Annapolis, died June 10 in Bowie ]after a brief illness. The longtime Annapolis resident was 74.
“Every place he went he brought a bag of chicken with him and everyone loved his chicken,” said Pat Queck, his sister. “He was very generous, extremely kind to people … and being in the public domain, being a store owner, he really had an opportunity to be involved with so many people in town.”
Robert Jarrell was born at Anne Arundel General Hospital to Robert Jarrell, a State Roads Commission employee, and Ray Fenton Jarrell, who worked at Read’s Drug Store on Main Street in Annapolis. He was one of four children.
A salesman from the start, he sold the most candy bars of anyone in his class at St. Mary’s Grammar School.
After school, Mr. Jarrell and his friends would often climb over the wall of St. Mary’s Parish and play tag among the boxwood trees, a place they nicknamed “Cannonball Cave” because the bushes that grew up around the area made it look like a cave.
“I wasn’t very athletic, so I couldn’t climb over the wall, but Bobby would always help me,” said Page Thompson Anderson, a lifelong friend. “There’d be four or five of us, and I’d be the only girl sometimes and Bobby would always watch out for me. … He treated me like his little sister.”
After attending Annapolis High School, Mr. Jarrell racked pool balls and shined shoes at the old Pete’s Place pool hall on Main Street, a spot that became a regular hangout for Mr. Jarrell and his friends well into their adult years.
But sales was Mr. Jarrell’s calling, and he worked at Bill Tydings Import Service as a mechanic and later became manager at the Old Town Inn on West Street. There, he met the owner, Raymond Machoian, and joined Machoian Poultry at City Dock’s Market House in 1973.
“That’s where he got all his knowledge and training about chicken, and developed his own spice,” Ms. Anderson said.
After 15 years at Machoian, Mr. Jarrell opened Cheep Cheep Chicken in the Festival at Riva shopping center. The restaurant led to his moniker around town, “The Chicken Man.”
“He loved cooking chicken and providing food for the community, but ultimately what he liked the most was the people,” said his daughter, Julia Jennings-Jarrell, who was just an infant when the business opened.
“We would be walking around and people didn’t necessarily know his name but they knew his face, so they’d say, ‘It’s “The Chicken Man.”’”
For more than two decades, Mr. Jarrell fed everyone from mayors to the owners of the Ravens, according to his family. He made friends with other businesses in the shopping center, often playing cards with the owners of the Chinese restaurant next door.
“He was so particular about the quality and the size of his chicken and how the potatoes were cut. That was so important to him that sometimes he would pay more for the chicken,” Ms. Queck said.
Mr. Jarrell told The Capital in 2000 that his philosophy is not to “be penny-wise and dollar-dumb. I like to spend a little extra money to give my customers a good quality product.”
In 2010, Cheep Cheep Chicken closed because the Festival at Riva didn’t renew his lease, according to The Capital. He spent a few years trying to reopen his business in the nearby Market House and sell his signature chicken spice, but things did not work out.
He continued to bring chicken to family gatherings, and met his friends every Wednesday to play pool and darts at Ms. Anderson’s house.
Mr. Jarrell is survived by his daughter, Julia Jennings-Jarrell, of Bowie, and sisters Pat Queck, of Millsboro, Delaware, and Dee Zemke, of Meriden, Connecticut. He was predeceased by his former partner, Jeanne Jennings.
The family will hold a private celebration of life in August.